(ON HIATUS) Mario & Luigi: Koopa Crisis
by Magifoofa
Summary: The Darklands have gone wild. Panic, anger and fear courses through all its inhabitants. Why? Bowser has gone missing. Kamek is trying his hardest to keep everyone under control, and the kids, especially Bowser Jr., aren't helping. He needs help finding the Koopa King, and fast. So he calls the last people he thought he would...
1. Chapter 1-1: The Adventure Begins

It was a peaceful day in the Mushroom Kingdom. There were very few clouds in the sky, despite being 7 in the morning, and birds chirped happily. In a certain house on the outskirts of the kingdom's central town, a certain younger brother was making breakfast. It was routine for him at this point. Wake up, get changed, make breakfast, wake up Mario.

Today he was making pancakes. Nothing fancy. He had already got out the golden syrup and the whipped cream and placed them in the center of the table. He knew he'd forget if he didn't do it before he started cooking.

He had just finished making the fourth pancake when the phone rang. Knowing that its ring wouldn't reach Mario's ears, he placed the freshly-made pancake on the pile and answered the phone.

"Hello, this is Luigi," he said.

"Oh! Luigi! I... wasn't expecting you," the caller replied. Their voice was raspy and high-pitched.

"...Kamek?" Luigi asked.

"Yup, that's my name, don't wear it out," Kamek replied, then laughed weakly. The laughter, or lack thereof, ceased, and Kamek went quiet for a few moments before asking, "Can you pass me to Mario?"

"He's asleep," Luigi told him, glancing at the doorway. "Well wake him up then!" Kamek replied. Luigi sighed quietly. "Okie dokie then."

He exited the kitchen and went up the stairs leading to their room. He went over to Mario's bed, and what do you know, he was still asleep.

Luigi poked Mario's nose and whispered, "Bro. Bro, wake up."

Mario was still asleep, much to the disappointment of Luigi.

Luigi poked his cheek, whispering louder, "Bro. Wake up."

Still, Mario did not wake up.

 _'Right,'_ Luigi thought, _'looks like I'll have to use my last resort.'_

He placed the phone down on his bedside dresser, then kneeled down and started pulling out Mario's mattress. That got him up.

"Huh? Wha... What's going on?" Mario questioned groggily, sitting up.

"Bro, Kamek's on the phone. He wants to talk to you," Luigi replied.

"Oh."

Mario picked up the phone and said, "Hello?"

"Ah, Mario! You're up!" Kamek said cheerfully. "How are you?"

"...Okay, I guess," Mario replied, rubbing an eye. He took the phone away from his ear and asked Luigi, "Hey, could you, uh, put my mattress back in place?"

"I can try," Luigi replied, then started pushing Mario's mattress back.

Mario put the phone back to his ear and asked, "So why are you calling? Just wanted to say hello? Bowser wants to play golf but he's too sick to actually make a call?"

"No, it's... I have a job for you two," Kamek replied.

Mario's face lifted a little. "Sure, we can do that! Which toilet?"

"Not a plumbing job... Master Bowser's gone missing."

"WHAT?!" Mario shouted, making Luigi jump.

"Huh? What 'what'?" Luigi asked.

"It's true... He just... _disappeared,_ " Kamek explained. "He was definitely here last night, but this morning, he was nowhere to be seen. We checked all over the castle! But he's just... not there. I told the kids, and they were pretty upset, _especially_ Junior. I told the kingdom as well, and now they've gone into a state of chaos. Without their king, they don't know what to do..."

Mario was stunned. "Oh... I'm... sorry..." He replied quietly.

"...It's fine," Kamek replied.

Luigi was rather concerned now. So concerned, in fact, he had stopped pushing Mario's mattress back in, leaving a lop-sided bed with the blankets all over the place.

"If it's not too big of a trouble, could you help find Master Bowser, please?" Kamek asked.

"Of course!" Mario replied, sitting up straighter. "It sounds _awful_ over there, we'll do as much as we can!"

Kamek let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you! I want you two to come over to the castle and meet me in my laboratory. I'll brief you there, and set you on your way."

"Right!" Mario said. "See you there!"

And with that, the call ended.

"M-Mario? What's up?" Luigi asked.

"Bowser's gone missing, and we're gonna find him!"

"Bowser's gone missing?!" Luigi repeated. "He could be _**anywhere,**_ how are we gonna find him?"

"Don't worry, Weegee, we'll pull through!" Mario cheered. "We have before, right?"

"Yeah..."

"So come on! Let's-a go!" Mario stood up on his bed, his fists clenched with excitement.

"Um, Mario," Luigi said, pointing at Mario's pajamas, "you might wanna get changed first. And have some breakfast as well. I made pancakes."


	2. Chapter 1-2: To Help a Kingdom

Mario and Luigi approached Bowser's Castle. They had traveled a long way on foot, as, unfortunately, Bowser refused to let them have a Warp Pipe to his castle. Luigi caught his breath as Mario knocked on the giant doors. The doors creaked open to reveal two Koopatrols. The left Koopatrol seemed rather pleased, while the right Koopatrol wasn't as happy as their partner.

"Mate, next time, put a little more backbone into it," the right Koopatrol told their peer.

The other just blinked an apology, and turned to the Mario Bros. It took them a while to realise it was the Mario Bros.

The Koopatrol rambled, "M-Mario! Oh my goodness, I was _not_ expecting to see you today, no, not at all, but can you believe that we're-"

"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO MAKE CONVERSATION WITH HIM! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TELL HIM TO STATE HIS BUSINESS!" Their partner shouted at them.

"O-Oh, right, um... Mario! State your... your, um... your purpose!" the rambler stuttered.

"That'll do..." the rambler's peer grumbled.

"We're here to see Kamek!" Mario exclaimed.

"Oh golly, Kamek?" the rambler repeated, taken back. "This must be awfully important, then."

The two Koopatrols moved so they faced each other. "Come in! I sure wouldn't want to be late to a meeting with Kamek, I don't think would either!"

The two brother walked inside the castle, and the Koopatrols shut the doors. It was... oddly quiet in the castle. There were no Koopa Troopas, no Spinies, no Lakitus, not even a single Goomba. The room was empty, save for the two of them.

"Mario, do you think anyone's home?" Luigi asked, cowering behind his younger brother as they slowly made their way down the room. "Maybe Kamek went out to, um..."

"Maybe we should check the throne room, just in case," Mario suggested. They made their way into the throne room, which was directly ahead.

When they entered the throne room, they could faintly hear the battle cries of many different enemies. In the middle of the hall was a red carpet with orange trimming, which lead up to the throne itself. It was gold, but looked as if it hadn't been cleaned it several months. The cushions on the throne were the same red as the carpet. It had two horns molded at the top, and claws at the ends of each arm. Sitting on the throne was Bowser Jr., who was holding a photo frame. Unusually, he wasn't wearing his bandana, and instead a dark purple cape. The actual cape was connected to a spiked collar much like the one Bowser wore, but with a yellow orb in the center and two smaller circles, red and black respectively, in the middle, making it look somewhat like an eye. He didn't seem to notice that the Mario Bros. had come in.

Mario cleared his throat and said softly, "Excuse me, Your Majesty?"

Bowser Jr.'s head whipped up and he stared at the plumbers with wide eyes for a moment before narrowing them.

"What do you want?" he growled.

"We were just wondering where Kamek's lab is," Mario explained.

"Just that?" Junior replied. "Not going to make _me_ disappear as well?"

"No, no, no, of course not!" Mario exclaimed, holding his hands in front of him. "Kamek called us here to _help!_ "

Bowser Jr.'s eyes widened. "...Really?"

Mario nodded.

"If you say so." Junior put the photo frame on an arm and slid off the throne. "It's just this way," he said, pointing down a hall.

Mario and Luigi stared blankly at the prince.

"Do you... want me to take you there?" he asked.

The brother nodded.

"All you had to do was ask," Junior said, then went down the hallway. Mario and Luigi followed behind him.

After going up many stairs, they had arrived at Kamek's laboratory.

"We're here," Bowser Jr. said. As he walked away, he added, "Good luck, or you're welcome, or...

something."

Once Junior had gone down the stairs, Mario knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Kamek's voice asked. "Do you think you can wait a bit? I need to get- oof!"

Mario blinked with surprise.

There was a small, muffled **thud** before the door clicked open to reveal Kamek.

"Oh, you made it!" Kamek said with delight. "Come on in!"

The two brother followed Kamek into the lab, which had many packed bookshelves and bottled potions of every hue. A large cauldron with a wooden stool sat against the wall.

"Does Luigi know the whole story?" Kamek asked.

"Not... really..." Luigi replied, tapping his index fingers together.

"Well, allow me to explain. Master Bowser has disappeared for seemingly no reason. We've checked everywhere we could, but we couldn't find him. The kingdom has been told of this and has now entered a state of chaos."

"Oh..."

"It makes me wonder though..." Kamek added, glancing down at the ground. "The ol- ...No, nevermind."

Luigi gave a curious blink to Mario, but said nothing.

"Anyway, you two are the key to saving Master Bowser, and the Darklands!" Kamek exclaimed, pointing a clawed finger at the two brothers. "And these thre-"

He stopped himself when realization hit him.

"I'll... be back soon," Kamek told the brothers. He snapped his fingers, summoning his broom, and rushed away.

There was a semi-awkward silence before Luigi asked, "What do you think he's getting?" "It might be a _who_ , but I have no idea," Mario replied, shrugging.

After another five minutes or so, Kamek came back into the lab with three small Koopas who bore an eerie resemblance to the king of Koopas himself dangling on Kamek's broom. These three, however, were coloured much differently than the king. Their heads, hair, cuffs and shells were coloured red, blue and green respectively.

"Alright, time to get off, you three," Kamek told the three Koopas.

"But Mr. Kaaaaameeeeek, I don't wanna get off," the red Koopa, who was holding onto the broom with one hand, whined.

Kamek sighed. "Red, my broom is not just a ride. It's quite fragile and very important. Now get off."

" _Noooooo_ ," the red Koopa, who Kamek had called Red, retaliated.

" **Off.** "

Red huffed and released his grip on the broom, falling onto the ground and letting out an, "Ow."

"Same goes for you two as well," Kamek told the green Koopa and the blue Koopa.

The green Koopa, who was holding onto the broom like a cat, sighed and reluctantly let go, retreating into his shell and coming out once he had landed. The blue Koopa, who had sensibly sat on the broom like any responsible and mature person would, simply swung a leg over and hopped off without a word.

"Who are these three, Kamek?" Mario asked.

"These three are the K. Kid Trio, the metaphorical lock of saving the Darklands!" Kamek introduced with excitement.

"Oh my goodness," the green Koopa gasped, smooshing his own cheeks, "we're helping the _**Mario**_ _**Brothers?**_ "

"That is correct, Green," Kamek replied.

"OH MY GOODNESS!"

"Now, boys, introduce yourselves to the brothers, if you don't mind. They probably don't remember you that well," Kamek told the K. Kid Trio.

Red was the first to speak up. "I'm Red K. Kid, and I'm the coolest of us."

"No you're not!" The blue Koopa protested.

"Yes I am!"

"No you're-"

"Guys, cut it out!" Green wailed, causing the other two kids to quiet.

"Thankies," Green said, then proceeded to introduce himself. "I'm Green K. Kid, sirs! Happy to help!"

"And I'm Blue K. Kid," the blue Koopa, Blue K. Kid, concluded.

"Thank you for doing that, you three," Kamek said, then told the Mario Bros., "These three will help you find Master Bowser! One of the heads of the... 'c-l-o-n-i-n-g' process did some fancy thing where he put a thing in a thing and then... Point is, it helps track down Master Bowser in the event that he goes missing, which is now, using similarities in DNA and I don't understand it."

There was a pause before Mario stated, "Sounds... complicated."

"It was, I'm sure," Kamek replied.

"Is this going to take much longer, Mr. Kamek?" Blue K. Kid asked, tapping his foot on the ground. "I bet this would've taken much less time in some alternate timeline."

"Yes, actually, now would you **shut it?** " Kamek growled. There was a pause before Kamek said, "Thank you."

"Now, you might see some of the Koopalings around, as well as some other high-ranking members of the troop while you're out and about looking for Master Bowser. I sent them off to different areas to look for Master Bowser as well. You can never have too many eyes!"

"So, where are _we_ going first?" Luigi asked.

"Glad you asked!" Kamek answered. "You'll be going to Shellington, the capital city of the Darklands. There's a lot of Magikoopas, and no doubt they're rioting, so watch out for flying magic blasts. And you should stock up on supplies if you can. Also, if you come across it, get some venison. The kids love it."

"I have an idea!" Green K. Kid spoke up. "Why don't you give Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi some items to start off with, Mr. Kamek? That is, if you have any."

"That's... actually a really good idea!" Kamek replied, lighting up Green K. Kid's face like a lightbulb. "I do believe I've got some Mushrooms in here..." Kamek bent down and opened up a large cupboard behind him and looked in it for a few seconds. He pulled out some Mushrooms and gave them to the Mario Bros. after he closed the cupboard.

"Thanks!" Mario said as he put the Mushrooms away. "You're all set now!" Kamek told them. "Off to Shellington!"

The K. Kid Trio let out several cheers and whoops as they followed Mario and Luigi out of Kamek's laboratory.

"Right, team," Mario said, "Let's-a go!"


	3. Chapter 1-3: The Shadow Thief

"Welcome to Shellington," Red K. Kid read, looking at a sign. "Well, it looks like a total dump."

In front of the Mario Bros. and the Koopa Kid Trio was a sea of arguing, things flying in the air and Koopas hiding.

"Dump?" Mario questioned, "It's called a protest, Red."

"Either way, we better start looking for any signs of Bowser," Luigi said.

"Right. Let's-a go!" Mario cheered.

The group started walking around the insanely large crowd.

"Sheesh, how big is this thing?" Blue K. Kid asked. "It's almost like it'll never end!"

A figure with a large sack ran past the group, catching their attention as it bolted around a corner and into an alley.

Green K. Kid said, "Hey Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi, who do ya think that guy who ran past was?" He pointed at the alley, and Luigi was instantly struck with fear.

Mario said to Green. K. Kid, "I don't know, but we should avoid him if we don't want to get into trouble."

"Unless he knows something about Mr. Bowser's whereabouts!" Red K. Kid exclaimed.

A Magikoopa swooped overhead on his broom and shouted, "Where are you, you little wand-pilfering scum?!"

The Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio looked up at the Magikoopa.

"Excuse me, sir," Luigi said, "what happened?"

The Magikoopa looked down at the Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio and said, "Oh, the Mario Bros., thank goodness."

"Hey, what about us?!" Red K. Kid shouted angrily.

"I'm not sure why you're here in Shellington, or _how_ you got here, to be honest, but that doesn't matter." The Magikoopa continued, ignoring Red K. Kid, "You see, some Beanish idiot just stole my wand. Probably doing it for Queen Bean. Or he'll sell it in the black market. And it's not like we Magikoopas have back-up wands..."

"Well, we just saw someone run into this alley, maybe it was him?" Luigi suggested.

"Yes, it probably was!" the Magikoopa said, clearly pleased.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Mario asked. "Let's go get the Magikoopa's wand back!"

Mario ran inside the alley with Luigi and the K. Kid Trio close behind.

It was dark inside the alley. A long shadow hid part of the thief's face, but the Mario Bros. knew who it was, even if only part of his face was revealed.

"POPPLE!" Luigi shouted with fear.

"Ugh, it's you two again," Popple grumbled. "Boo. Boo, I say. I was just waiting for you and your gang to leave, see? But no, you just come in here to get back that Magikoopa's wand."

"Well it's not like we'd let you run off with it," Blue K. Kid stated.

Popple took off his sack and pulled the Magikoopa's wand out of it. He held it up and said, "Look, if yous want the wand, then you're gonna have to _fight me_ for it!"

He shook the wand and shot several blasts of magic at the Bros., who pulled out their hammers and fired them back at him.

"Hey, Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi!" Green K. Kid called out.

The K. Kid Trio ran over to the sidelines.

"You're probably used to fighting by yourselves, right? And having to heal each other?" Green K. Kid asked.

"Well, we've decided that we'll help you guys in battle!" Red K. Kid announced happily. "We'll give you Mushrooms and heal you sometimes! And sometimes deal a little damage to the opponents!"

"WHAT?!" Popple shrieked. "No fair!"

"Ha ha," Red K. Kid laughed at Popple, then blew a raspberry.

Popple growled, "Why you..."

He turned around and walked towards the Mario Bros. The bros. readied their hammers as he approached. Popple turned around and ran towards Mario, who smacked him with his hammer. Popple ran back to his place, rubbing his cheek where he had been hit.

Mario ran up to Popple and jumped on his head twice, then Luigi did the same.

"Already you're persistent. I've gotta find another rookie..." Popple mumbled, before grabbing his sack and threw out some coins and mushrooms. Mario and Luigi jumped to get the coins while the K. Kid Trio ran behind them to get as many mushrooms as they could. Popple then threw out a creature similar to a Bob-Omb, which bounced over to Luigi and exploded in his face. Popple continued to throw out coins and mushrooms, as well as a few of the Bob-Omb creatues, before putting the bag down.

Mario jumped on Popple's head again, but this time around, Luigi used his hammer to attack Popple. Green K. Kid also jumped on Popple's head, just for fun, but still dealt damage.

Popple picked up the Magikoopa's wand and said, "Let's see if this wand will work properly this time." He waved it around a little and released some more magic blasts. Unlike the first time, the magic blasts ricocheted off the sides of the alley. Mario and Luigi didn't see this coming, and got hit by a lot of the magic blasts. They were still able to hit some of the magic blasts back at Popple, though.

"Mr. Mario! Mr. Luigi! Here!" Blue K. Kid called, before throwing them a Mushroom each. The Bros. caught them and eagerly ate them, regaining some health.

Popple saw this as a chance to attack again. He picked up his sack and threw coins and Mushrooms at them, most of which the K. Kid Trio didn't pick up. More of the Bob-Omb creatures where thrown, quite literally, in the mix, which the Bros. managed to hit back.

Mario and Luigi proceeded to hit Popple with their hammers.

"No... I'm not giving up yet, see?" Popple said, then turned his back to the Mario Bros and walked towards them. Mario and Luigi readied their hammers again. Popple ran at Luigi, who smacked him back. Popple ran back to where he was and awaited the next attack from the Mario Bros.

Mario hit Popple with his hammer, and Luigi jumped on his head.

"One last shot at this wand, and if it doesn't work, I'll give it to you," Popple said. He raised the wand into the sky and waved it around, releasing a big ball of magic which flew up into the air, then fell straight toward Mario and Luigi.

"Watch out!" Green K. Kid shouted to the Mario Bros.

As the ball of magic came closer, Mario and Luigi readied their hammers. Just before the magic ball hit them, they hit back at Popple, who got dealt a lot of damage.

"WAIIIIIT!" Blue K. Kid shouted, then ran over to Popple with a couple of mushrooms.

"Here, have these. In exchange for the wand," Blue K. Kid said to Popple, putting the mushrooms on the ground.

"Ugh... Thanks, kid." Popple said, his voice shaky from the shock of the magic ball. He slowly grabbed the mushrooms and took a bite into one. His health replenished, and he instantly felt much better. He grabbed the Magikoopa's wand with his other hand and passed it to Blue K. Kid.

"Here you go, kid," he said.

Blue K. Kid took out of his hand and said, "Thanks."

Popple stood up and said, "Just because you won this time, doesn't mean I'll stop thieving, see? I'll be back soon!" He then ran out of the alley as fast as he came in, taking another bite out of the mushroom he was eating.

Red K. Kid said, "Come on guys, let's go return that wand!"

The Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio walked outside.

"Sunlight, sweet sunlight!" Luigi cried happily. Mario just rolled his eyes.

"It sounded like quite a battle in there, are you alright?" the Magikoopa asked.

"We're-a just fine, thanks," Mario replied.

Blue K. Kid held up the Magikoopa's wand and said, "We got back your wand, too!"

The Magikoopa's eyes lit up as he took the wand from Blue K. Kid. "Thank you!"

"Any time," Mario said, tipping his hat.

"So why are you two in Shellington, anyway?" The Magikoopa asked.

"We're looking for King Bowser. Kamek asked us to help," Luigi explained.

"Kamek asked you to help find King Bowser?" The Magikoopa exclaimed. "Well, aren't you honored! Good luck on finding him!" the Magikoopa said, then flew off happily.

"I'm happy that we helped that Magikoopa out," Green K. Kid said.

"Yeah. I was expecting him to be a little more... _scary,_ though..." Luigi added.

Mario laughed, "He was just a Magikoopa."

"But their glasses make them look scary!" Luigi whined.

"Come on, let's go and see if we can find any traces of Bowser!" Mario said.

"We should look in some buildings," Green K. Kid suggested, "You never know where Mr. Bowser could of gone."

"He's right!" Red K. Kid added. "Mr. Bowser could of got lost... buying... streamers... or... something." He shrugged.

"Okie dokie!" Luigi cheered. "Let's-a go!"

The Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio set off to find a trace of Bowser in the buildings of Shellington.


	4. Chapter 1-4: Hookbill's Gang

"We've been all around the city, how have we not found a single trace of Bowser yet?" Luigi asked as Mario, the K. Kid Trio and himself continued to wander around Shellington.

"My legs are sore," Red K. Kid moaned.

Blue K. Kid hit Red K. Kid on the head and snapped, "Shut up, Red! You'll get us killed!"

"We're not going to kill you if you moan," Mario told the bickering K. Kids, "We'll just get really annoyed at the most."

Blue K. Kid and Red K. Kid stared at him blankly and simply said, "Oh."

"I don't think we've checked the theater yet," Green K. Kid said, looking at a map of Shellington on Luigi's phone.

"You can read maps?" Blue K. Kid asked, looking over Green K. Kid's shoulder.

"No. I just think we haven't checked the theater yet," Green K. Kid replied.

"Speaking of the theater," Luigi said, pointing at a large building adorned with flashing lights, "is that it there?"

Green K. Kid looked up from the phone and looked at the building for a few second before saying, "Yeah."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Red. K Kid asked. "Let's go check the theater!"

He ran off to the theater, Green K. Kid and Blue K. Kid chasing after him.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Luigi shouted before running after the K. Kid Trio with Mario.

The K. Kid Trio waited for the Mario Bros. to catch up on a bench that just so happened to be nearby.

"Hey, this bench has graffiti on it," Blue K. Kid pointed out, pointing at the various words and symbols spray painted next to him.

The other two K. Kids looked over his shoulder.

"There is too!" Green K. Kid exclaimed.

"Shows how much chaos the Darklands have gotten into _already_ ," Red K. Kid said.

At last, Mario and Luigi arrived at the theater. The K. Kid Trio looked over their shoulders.

"Took you long enough," Red K. Kid said.

"They only took, like, a minute and a half. You just have no patience," Blue K. Kid replied.

"Ready to go in, guys?" Mario asked.

Green K. Kid scuttled off the bench and looked inside the theater.

"I don't think there's anyone in there. They're probably in the big fight over where we arrived, so it's safe to go in," he said.

"Okie dokie, if you say so," Mario said. He lead the K. Kid Trio and his brother into the theater.

The inside of the reception was covered with red velvet, both of the fabric and the cake variety.

"Who had a food fight in here?" Luigi asked, looking around.

"You mean who was _wasting the cake,_ right?" Red K. Kid asked the green plumber.

"Um, yeah. We can go with that," Luigi replied.

The group continued into the stage room, where they saw a group of Koopa Troopas, at least ten, and and an abnormally large red shell Koopa Troopa whose eyes seemed to bulge.

"Orrrrr maybe they _didn't_ go to the big fight," Green K. Kid corrected himself.

Surrounded by the pack of Koopa Troopas were two of Bowser's kids, Larry and Ludwig. Larry looked scared out of his mind, and Ludwig was trying to stay calm.

"Alright, y-y-you t-two! T-t-t-tell us where Bowser i-i-is!" the large Koopa Troopa demanded.

"For the millionth time, we don't know!" Larry exclaimed. "We're looking for him ourselves!"

"T-T-TELL US!" the large Koopa Troopa shouted, his gang closing in on the two Koopalings.

"WE DON'T KNOW!" Larry shrieked.

Ludwig winced and said, "Did you really have to do that right in my ear?"

"Well sorry! I'm scared, okay?" Larry replied.

"Hey Hookbill, can't we just beat them now?" one of the Koopa Troopas asked the large Koopa Troopa, Hookbill.

"N-na, n-n-n-not until we find out w-w-w-where B-B-B-Bowser is," Hookbill replied.

"Ludwig, we've gotta find a way out of here!" Larry whispered to his brother. "They're gonna make minced meat out of us!"

"Our way out of here _is_ them. We just have to play our words right," Ludwig whispered back.

"Well I'm gonna find a way out anyway. Just in case "Play our words right" backfires," Larry said.

He looked over in the direction of the recpetion room and saw the Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio.

"Hey, look, Ludwig! It's Mario and Luigi!" Larry said happily, pointing at the Mario Bros. He lowered his arm to point at the K. Kid Trio and said, "And... whoever those little guys are. I forgot."

Hookbill and his gang turned to look at the Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio.

"Whoops."

"Huh, th-that little b-b-b-baby's grown a l-l-lot," Hookbill remarked. "B-b-b-but that d-d-doesn't m-matter. Gang, b-b-beat 'em up!"

Five of the Koopa Troopas ran up to the Mario Bros., ducked into their shells and bowled them over. They spun around them and came out of their shells about a meter away from the brothers in a circle formation.

Mario jumped on one of the Koopa Troopa's head, and Luigi did the same.

The Koopa Troopas lined up and took a running start towards Luigi. As they drew closer, they ducked into their shells. Luigi managed to jump over some of the Koopa Troopas but tripped on a couple. The Koopa Troopas spun around and hopped out of their shells, back into formation.

Mario used his hammer to attack a Koopa Troopa, and Luigi jumped again.

Time passed as the Koopa Troopas attacked, and Mario and Luigi retaliated. Eventually, the brothers defeated the group of Koopa Troopas, only to be attacked by the rest of the gang. After more attacking and retaliating, as well as a bit of healing, the rest of the gang were defeated.

"W-w-w-what?! Y-y-you useless l-l-l-little w-weaklings!" Hookbill exclaimed, looking at his fallen gang. "Y-y-y-you're gonna p-pay f-f-for th-this!"

Hookbill got down on all fours and crawled towards Mario and Luigi. He stopped about a metre away from the brothers and lifted up his left arm, or leg in this case, momentarily. He then charged at Mario, bowling him over. He ran back a couple of metres and got back on his hind legs.

The K. Kid Trio ran to the sidelines.

"Ouch, that must've hurt," Green K. Kid commented.

"That Hookbill sure is fast, huh?" Red K. Kid said.

"He's nothing like the other Koopas that you've had to fight," Blue K. Kid added. "Be careful, OK?"

The K. Kid Trio ran back behind Mario and Luigi.

Mario jumped on Hookbill's head, and Luigi did the same.

Hookbill smirked as he said, "N-nice try, b-b-b-but th-th-that did next to n-n-n- _nothing!_ "

Hookbill got back down on all fours and crawled towards the Mario Bros. like he did for his first attack. This time, though, he got back up on his hind legs, stomped his right foot, and charged at Luigi before lunging at him. Luigi managed to jump over Hookbill. Hookbill got back up and returned to his spot.

Mario and Luigi jumped on Hookbill's head again.

Hookbill got back down on all fours, backed up, and ran toward Luigi. About half a metre away from the green plumber, Hookbill ducked into his shell and spun at Luigi, who managed to jump over the giant Koopa Troopa's shell. Hookbill spun back to his spot and hopped out his shell on his hind legs.

Again, Mario and Luigi jumped on Hookbill's head. This time, though, a bit more damage was dealt, and Hookbill fell back on his shell, leaving his underside exposed.

Mario hit Hookbill's underside with his hammer, while Luigi with jumped. Unlike the times where the brothers had hit Hookbill's head, a lot of damage was dealt.

Hookbill got up and remarked sorely, "W-w-wow, th-th-th-that hurt m-more than that d-d-d-d-dino p-p-punk's butt th-that o-o-one t-t-time... B-b-but th-th-that's n-no excuse to g-g-give up!"

Hookbill attacked the brothers like before, and Mario and Luigi retaliated the same way. Hookbill got knocked down again, and the brothers hit his belly again.

Hookbill got up from another underside beating and growled, "Ugh, y-y-you t-two are t-t-t-tough. Y-y-you g-g-guys have p-p-p-pushed me around enough, and n-n-n-now I'm n-not h-h-h-holding b-b-back against y-you l-l-l-l-losers!"

The K. Kid Trio ran to the sidelines again.

"Uh-oh. He's mad," Red K. Kid commented.

"With rage like that, he's sure to deal more damage to you guys!" Green K. Kid said, filled with worry.

The K. Kid Trio ran back behind the Mario Bros.

Hookbill attacked Mario and Luigi like before, but a little quicker and with more rage. Mario got hit once, but was quickly healed by Luigi. Once the brothers had got Hookbill and hit his belly once more, the giant Koopa Troopa gave up.

"O-OK, g-g-good f-f-f-f-fight, g-g-guys," Hookbill mumbled, getting up. "O-O-OK, g-gang, l-l-l-let's r-r-r-roll." Hookbill picked up his fallen gang mates and stumbled out of the theater.

"Woah... That was AWESOME!" Larry exclaimed, his eyes bright. "I knew the Mario Bros. could kick shell, but that was _way_ cooler!" He ran down to Mario and Luigi and waved a little, his smile wide with glee.

"Apologies about that," Ludwig said, coming over to the brothers. "We had a plan to get away from those Koopas, and save you the trouble of fighting them, but-"

"We walked in at the wrong time?" Mario finished.

"...Yeah," Ludwig replied.

"And when I pointed out that they were here, I plunged them into the deep end without realising?" Larry added.

"Yeah," Ludwig replied.

"But it worked out in the end!" Red K. Kid exclaimed.

"And besides, if Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi hadn't defeated that gang, they'd still be at large! I doubt they'll be doing any harm for some time," Green K. Kid said.

"True," Ludwig said. "Say, Mario, why are you in the Darklands, anyway?"

"We're helping Kamek find Bowser," Mario explained.

"Wait, so, did Kamek _ask_ you to help?" Larry asked.

"Yeah," Luigi replied.

"Woah," Larry mumbled in awe.

"Well, we'd better get going," Ludwig said, walking toward the entrance. "Come on, Larry. We're going now."

"OK!" Larry said, then jogged behind him.

Once Larry and Ludwig had left, Blue K. Kid asked, "Since we've looked all over Shellington and haven't found any traces of Mr. Bowser, should we call Mr. Kamek to see where we should go next?"

"Good idea," Mario said.

He took his phone out of his pocket, only to realize that he didn't have Kamek's phone number.

"Maybe we should wait for him to call?" Luigi suggested.

"...Yeah. Let's do that," Mario replied.

Minutes went by as the Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio waited for Kamek to call. After about fifteen minutes, he called. As soon as Mario's ringtone went off, Red K. Kid grabbed his phone out of his hand and answered, "HELLO YES THIS RED K. KID MR. KAMEK."

"Yeah, uh... Hi," Kamek replied. "Could you put it on speaker?"

"...I dunno how to do that," Red. K. Kid said.

"Then how about you let _me_ do it," Mario said, taking his phone out of Red K. Kid's hand. He put it on speaker.

"Is it on speaker now?" Kamek asked.

"Yes," Mario replied.

"Thank you. Have you found any traces of Master Bowser?" Kamek asked.

"No, unfortunately..." Green K. Kid said.

"Oh, well, that's a shame," Kamek said, somewhat disappointed. "Well, next you should check Turtilko. You can get there via the train. There's a train station at the north of Shellington, so you don't have to go too far."

"Right!" Mario said, nodding slightly.

"Anyway, good luck on finding Master Bowser."

The call ended.

"So, Turtilko, huh?" Red K. Kid said, "... I know next to nothing about that place."

Mario and Luigi sighed.

"Well, we better get going now if we want to catch a train," Luigi said.

"Right," Mario said. "Let's-a go!"


	5. Chapter 2-1: The Train to Turtilko

The train had just left the Shellington station a few minutes ago, and already the K. Kid Trio were bickering.

"No, _I'm_ definitely going to find the first trace of Mr. Bowser!"

"No, _I_ am!"

"No way! _I'm_ going to find it!"

Mario was trying to hold in a chuckle as he watched the young Bowser clones argue. Luigi was looking at the sights out the window, which was mostly fields, with some trees dotted her and there.

Suddenly, a yellow ball with orange stars knocked down the carriage door and bounced onto Blue K. Kid's head, causing him to yelp with annoyance.

Lemmy, another of Bowser's children, came into the train carriage that the Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio were on, rolling on his ball. Iggy was also with him, a huge grin on his face. The door slammed behind them.

"Where'd it go? **Where'd it go?!** " Iggy gleefully screeched.

The presence of the two Koopalings piqued the interest of the K. Kid Trio, and kneeled on their chair to see what they were doing. Blue K. Kid noticed that Lemmy's ball looked the same as the ball that had hit him.

"Hey! Rainbow dude!" Blue K. Kid yelled.

Lemmy looked at Blue K. Kid, curious as to why Blue K. Kid had was so angry with him.

"What was up with that ball, huh? That really hurt!" Blue K. Kid continued.

"Oh, so _that's_ where it went!" Lemmy said, his face lighting up. "Thanks!"

He skipped over to the K. Kid Trio and grabbed the ball that hit Blue K. Kid, disappearing with a show of various shapes that went back into his wand.

"Sorry 'bout that, by the way. We were just having a bit of fun. Must've got a bit out of hand," Lemmy said sheepishly.

Iggy walked over and asked, "Mario? Luigi? What are you guys doing in the _**Darklands**_ , of all places?"

"Kamek asked us to help find Bowser. The K. Kid Trio are helping as well," Luigi explained.

Suddenly the door swung open, and another one of Bowser's kids, Morton, came running in.

"There you are!" he yelled, "I was worried about you two! You know that you two can get really reckless!"

"Don't be silly, Morty! We're always fine in the end, so there's no need to worry!" Iggy said.

Morton tried to think of something to reply with, but just sighed and said, "Whatever you say."

He looked over at the Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio and asked, "Why are you guy-"

"They're looking for Dad. On Kamek's request, of course," Iggy explained, cutting Morton off.

"Uh... Okay," Morton replied.

The train stopped at the Turtilko station, and the slight jerk of the train stopping made Lemmy fall off his ball.

A Koopa over the intercom announced, "We have arrived at Turtilko Station. Please enjoy your stay."

The train doors opened with a hiss, and the Koopas on the train got up and exited the train. The Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio exited the train together.

"Wow," Green K. Kid said, "this place is a lot more…industrial than I thought it would be. All the houses I can see are built _right next_ to each other! And there's also a whole bunch of shops."

"Just a thought," Morton said as he approached the bros., "I think you guys will need some help navigating Turtilko. Is it alright if we go with you?"

"Sure!" Mario said with a smile.

Morton turned his head over his shoulder and yelled, "Lemmy! Iggy! We're going with the Mario Bros.! Come on!"

Lemmy and Iggy ran over to Morton.

"Come on guys!" Red K. Kid yelled, "Let's go!"

He ran down a narrow street, and left the rest of the crew behind. They stared blankly at where he went for a few seconds before Blue K. Kid said, "We should probably go after him, huh."

"Yeah… Let's go," Green K. Kid replied, then ran after Red K. Kid with Blue K. Kid. Mario and Luigi ran behind them, and the three Koopalings trailed behind them.

The crew found Red K. Kid catching his breath next to a café, and once they found him, they continued through the streets.

It was only about five minutes later when the Mario Bros. jolted to a halt, the K. Kid Trio almost falling over behind them. In front of them was a dark grey mat-like covering on the ground that reached the edges of the street. The mat had some lighter grey patches on it in the shape of a twisted path.

"What's that big mat thing doing there?" Luigi asked, shocked.

"Yeah, uh, about that," Lemmy said with a hint of nervousness, "we kinda set up a puzzle."

Iggy continued, "When we say "a", we mean three."

"Apparently it was a safety thing?" Morton shrugged.


	6. Chapter 2-2: Puzzles!

"Okay… Let me explain," Iggy laughed nervously, "The mat you see before you has spikes underneath it. Step in the wrong place – game over. Youhave to find the path without the spikes and get to the other side, or, well, y'know…you go kaput."

"S-Spikes?" Luigi stammered.

"Yeah. Spikes," Lemmy replied, nodding his head slightly.

"Well we're not going to get across just by standing here!" Red K. Kid exclaimed boldly, "Let's go across already!"

Red K. Kid marched over to the mat, but was stopped by Blue K. Kid tightly grabbing his wrist and pulling him back vigorously.

"Do you want to die?!" Blue K. Kid yelled with frustration.

"No," Red K. Kid replied.

"THEN DON'T WALTZ UP TO IT, YOU DUMMY!"

Red K. Kid went back up to it, and knelt down. He cautiously placed his finger on the edge of the mat. He flinched backward when a quartet of spikes jolted up from the mat and hid back in the mat as quickly as they appeared. A sheer look of fear was on his face as Red K. Kid said, "Yikes. Well that was…terrifying. Best to avoid those spikes."

"Wait a second," Mario suddenly blurted, causing everyone else to look at him with wide-eyed curiosity, "The correct path is _way_ lighter than the spiked areas!"

There was a small silence before Red K. Kid yelled, "Well let's going! Mr. Bowser's trail ain't gonna be around forever!"

He skipped across the mat to the other side, being wary not to touch any of the spiked areas. The other two K. Kids followed behind him with caution, then the Mario Bros. went across.

Once the K. Kid Trio and the Mario Bros. were across, the three Koopalings crossed, for there were more puzzles ahead that needed to be explained.

"You guys did that really quickly! Didn't notice how obvious the path was, though. Next time I make a spike puzzle, I'm going to try make the spikes more discreet," Iggy commented, "There's another puzzle not too far ahead. We'll see you guys there!"

He then jogged away, Lemmy and Morton following behind him.

The Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio didn't have to walk too far before reaching the next puzzle. There was a large gate in front of them, with small points at the top. Luigi shuddered at the sight of the gate, being reminded of the mansions in Evershade Valley. In front of the gate were six large, dull grey buttons on the ground.

"You see those buttons down on the ground there?" Iggy asked, motioning to the buttons aforementioned. The Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio nodded.

"When you hit them with enough force, they light up!" Iggy looked over to Morton and asked, "You DO still have your hammer, right?"

"Yeah!" Morton replied, then opened the lid of a rubbish bin beside him and reached into it, pulling out an almost black hammer. He walked over to one of the buttons and smacked down on it with his hammer, blue shapes lighting up around it. The button that was hit glowed a bright blue.

"The buttons light up either red, blue or magenta!" Iggy said.

"Magenta? Why magenta?" Blue K. Kid questioned.

"I was feeling creative," Iggy replied flatly, "Anyway! Onward with the explanation! Two buttons of the same glow colour must be hit in row to lower a gate a third. Say if you hit two red glow buttons, you'll lower the gate a third. But the buttons have to be hit in a particular order! One mistake, and you have to start **all over** again!"

"That is **not** cool," Green K. Kid said.

"Sad but true," Lemmy replied.

"So get to it! Lower that gate!" Iggy said happily. He and Morton moved to the side to let the Mario Bros. figure out the puzzle.

Since the K. Kid Trio didn't have hammers of their own, they stepped back to let Mario and Luigi to take care of things.

Mario was surprisingly hasty to hit the button middle left, which lit up magenta. Luigi went to the other end and hit the button closest to the center on the right. It lit up red for a second before zapping the green plumber. The lit button faded, causing the brothers to start again. Mario hit the same button, which lit up magenta again. This time, Luigi hit the button at the very right, which also lit up magenta. The gate lowered a third with a screech. Mario then hit the button at the very left, which lit up blue. Luigi hit the button next to the magenta button that Mario had hit, causing another shock and another restart. The brothers hit the buttons in the same order as they had previously, apart from Luigi hitting the last button he hit. Instead, he hit the button middle right, which thankfully lit up blue. The gate lowered another third in the same ear-bleedingly fashion. Mario hit the button closest to the center on the right. The button lit up red. Luigi hit the remaining button, which obviously turned red. The gate lowered into the ground with another loud screech and a **clang**.

"Congrats!" Iggy applauded, "We'll go on ahead. It's the last puzzle, so don't worry! You can stop reading all this boring text soon."

"…What boring text?" Lemmy questioned, squinting with confusion.

Morton looked up to see if there just so happened to be any words floating up in the sky, or at least word-shaped clouds.

"Good question, Lemm! What boring text? I don't even know what you're on about!" Iggy sheepishly laughed, trying to cover up his fourth wall break.

Lemmy facepalmed before mumbling, "Let's just go already…"

Iggy jogged over to the next puzzle, a bit more in a hurry this time. Lemmy and Morton trailed behind him.

Green K. Kid looked up at Mario and asked, "Do you have any idea what that was about?"

Mario simply shrugged.

Green K. Kid shook his head. "Anyway. Let's go!"

The Mario Bros. lead the K. Kid Trio to the next puzzle, which was situated _right in front of the entrance to Turtilko Square._ What's worse, parts of the road were _cut out into large blocks_ and placed in different areas of the road.

Iggy enthusiastically said, "This last puzzle is your generic, everyday HM04 Strength puzzle!"

Mario and Luigi looked at Iggy with confusion, while the K. Kid Trio whispered upon themselves, reminding each other what an HM04 Strength puzzle was.

"Let me rephrase that," Iggy said bluntly, "This puzzle consists of chunks of the roa- I MEAN… random blocks of concrete that you don't need to know how we obtained and having them placed on the road in seemingly random places. We placed these _verrrrrrry_ carefully. So the puzzle's solvable, of course. We also built these walls so the blocks don't go crashing into people's buildings. We don't have the Coins to pay for the damage. You must put these blocks into these holes in the ground _which we totally didn't cut_ by hitting them with your hammers into the right place. Doing so will enable you to proceed and us to leave you alone. I'll leave you to it."

Iggy proceeded to go to the side when he was interrupted by Blue K. Kid, who shouted, "Hey!"

Iggy spun around and asked, "Yeeeeeeeeeees?"

"Why can't we just go around the blocks?" Blue K. Kid inquired.

"Becaaaaaaaaause," Iggy said, stalling, "I told you to."

Blue K. Kid sighed, slightly frustrated.

Iggy continued his way over to the side, letting Mario and Luigi figure out the puzzle. At first, they took things quite slowly, but the K. Kid Trio helped them complete the puzzle. Once the puzzle had been completed, Iggy cheered, " **You did it!** " Lemmy quickly grabbed some confetti from… _somewhere_ andthrew it all over the place.

"Congratulations, guys! You put with our puzzles, and actually finished them!" Iggy said enthusiastically.

Lemmy asked, "Now that the Mario Bros. have solved our puzzles…now what?"

"We go look for Dad!" Iggy replied, "Isn't that why we're here?"

"Right!" Lemmy said.

Iggy said, "See ya later, Mario Bros.!"

"WHAT ABOUT US?!" Green K. Kid burst out.

Iggy almost fell over as he said, "Oh yeah! See you three later as well!"

Iggy dashed away with Lemmy, but unusually, Morton stayed behind.

"Why are you still here?" Green K. Kid asked him.

"Oh, I just wanted to say thanks for putting up our puzzles. Lemmy and Iggy must've got a big kick out of it. It's not every day that people come 'round and solve puzzles that they've set up," Morton replied.

He looked over to the square and said, "They've gone pretty far. Don't want anything blowing up. See you!"

Morton ran as fast as he could in the direction that Lemmy and Iggy ran off in.

"Finally," Luigi said, extremely relieved, "we did it. Now how about we go into the square?"

The K. Kid Trio's shouts of agreement were drowned out by one another as they punched their fists into the air.

"Let's GO then!" Red K. Kid exclaimed.


	7. Chapter 2-3: Popple's New Rookie

The Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio walked back into Turtilko Square for the fourth time that day, still without a trace of Bowser.

"Wow, Turtilko's bigger than I expected," Green K. Kid said, "And almost everyone's really worked up, hostile even! I'm guessing that it's because Mr. Bowser's gone missing."

"Y'know, this kinda reminds of those Pokemon spinoff games we played once or twice!" Red K. Kid said to his peers, "Everyone's gone mad and we're the only sane ones left to save 'em. What were those games called again?"

Green and Blue K. Kid shrugged.

As they approached the other side of the square, they heard a voice yell out, "Come back 'ere, you two rascals!"

The voice belonged to an elderly Hammer Bro., who was shaking his fist as two figures ran out of his store with sacks over their shoulders.

"Hey bro, I think one of those two was Popple. We should go see what the problem is," Luigi said with concern.

"You think?" Mario questioned.

"Yeah," Luigi said with a hint of bluntness.

The K. Kid Trio raced over to the Hammer Bro.

"Come on, Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi!" Red K. Kid called out.

Mario and Luigi ran over to the K. Kid Trio and the Hammer Bro.

"Hello sir what seems to be the problem sir?" Red K. Kid said loudly.

"Ah, hello to you too," the Hammer Bro. replied, "Y'see, I was just doin' my work as usual, when all of a sudden, these two hooligans come in and steal my goods!"

"And what sort of goods do you sell?" Blue K. Kid asked, his eyes narrowed, trying to keep in his impatience.

"Hardware," The Hammer Bro. said.

"…You sell computer stuff?" Green K. Kid questioned, "You don't seem like the kind of koopa to sell that kind of thing. No offense, sir."

"No, no, silly! HARDWARE! Like nails and screws and spanners!"

"OHHHHHHHHH," the K. Kid Trio realised in unison.

"Yes, so the hooligans stole my goods. Mostly my hammers," the Hammer Bro. continued.

"And…?" Red K. Kid asked eagerly.

"And they ran off with it! I would go after 'em myself, but it's been awhile since I fought for the Koopa Troop, and with my ol' age, I don't think I could keep up!" the Hammer Bro. explained, "Say, you all look pretty young. Perhaps you could you could go teach those fools a lesson for me? Get back my goods while you're at it, too."

"Sure thing!" Mario quickly said.

"Ah, thank you. The two of 'em went over by the wharf," the Hammer Bro. said, pointing north.

"Okie dokie! We'll be on our way!" Mario said, making his way to the wharf. The K. Kid Trio quicky caught up, while Luigi trailed behind.

* * *

The two thieves kneeled on the sand by the wharf, resting their sacks on the ground.

"Okay, Rookie, this is how it goes—"

"Can you stop calling me Rookie, please? I have a name."

"Shut it, Rookie! I'm explaining our plan, see?" Popple told 'Rookie' angrily.

'Rookie' sighed with defeat. "Fine," he mumbled through his bandana.

"This is how it goes: We go over to the ferry and knock the ticket guys—"

"Don't the 'ticket guys' have an actual name?"

Popple facepalmed. " **Just let me explain the plan!** "

"Okay, okay, okay!" 'Rookie' said with panic.

"We go over to the ferry and knock the ticket guys out. Then we go onto the ferry, but somewhere where we won't be found."

"But we're a pair of thieves, don't you think—"

" **SHUT UP ROOKIE!** "

'Rookie' stayed quiet, his eyes wide with fear.

Popple sighed, trying to calm himself. "AS I WAS SAYING. The we go onto the ferry, but somewhere where we won't be found. Namely, the toilets."

'Rookie' looked at Popple with doubt.

"Trust me, Rookie, they'll never suspect a thing, see? Then we wait until the ferry arrives at Sarasaland, then we sell these in the black market!"

'Rookie' doubted Popple more.

"Now, there's these two punks in red and green that could screw things up. They might come and find us, see? So, what do we do if they come? Well, let me tell you. If they come, we attack them, see?"

"Wh-What? Why?"

"We can't have anyone tellin' the police see?"

'Rookie' thought momentarily before asking, "But if you're talking about who I think you're talking about, wouldn't they have more power than the police? If the Darklands even _have_ police?"

Popple growled, "Rookie, _**what**_ did I _**say**_ **.** "

"Sh-Shut up," 'Rookie' stammered.

Popple continued, "Then once we beat the 'shrooms out of them, we get on the ferry! Easy as pie, see?"

'Rookie' just nodded.

As if on que, the Mario Bros. and K. Kid Trio arrived at the wharf to see the two thieves. They looked at each other with blank stares.

Luigi finally spoke up, stammering, "N-N-Nabbit? Wh-What are you doing w-with-? I thought-"

Nabbit said nothing. He was too scared to say anything.

Popple quickly jumped to his feet, and Nabbit followed suit as well as he could, stumbling slightly as he got up. The pair grabbed their sacks and Popple ordered loudly, "Rookie, so what I told you to do! Now, ATTACK!"

Popple and Nabbit charged at the bros., starting a battle.

Popple turned his back the Mario Bros. and walked up to them. The bros. readied their hammers as he approached. Popple swiftly turned around and ran at Mario, nabbing his hammer.

"Ha! Now that I've got your hammer, there's no way we'll lose, see?" Popple declared.

Mario and Luigi braced themselves for the next attack. Nabbit ran up to Mario and jumped twice on his head before scuttling back to Popple's side.

Mario ran at Popple and jumped on his head. He was going to try and do a quintuple jump, but he fumbled and messed up on the second jump, causing him to fall on his back on the sand. He pushed himself up and ran back over to where he stood.

Luigi ran up to Popple and attempted to on jump on his head, but Popple quickly pulled out Mario's stolen hammer and hit back down to the ground with it.

"How did is he okay from that?" Blue K. Kid questioned.

"Mmmm _magic_ ," Red K. Kid replied, making a rainbow gesture with his hands.

Popple ran up to Luigi and whacked him with the hammer he stole once again, putting Luigi on the verge of low HP. After he was done, he ran back to his position.

"Let me see if I can do this…" Nabbit mumbled meekly. He turned his back to the Mario Bros. and walked up to them. Luigi readied his hammer, while Mario crossed his fingers and hoped that Nabbit didn't aim for him. Unfortunately, Nabbit aimed for Mario. He ran at the red-clad plumber, but tripped and fell. Mario sighed with relief as Nabbit ran back to Popple's side.

"Ugh, Rookie! You've been practicing that move for _ages_ , how can you still not get it?!" Popple exclaimed angrily.

"I-I'm sorry, Popple, it's just that this is my first battle, and—"

Popple facepalmed as he sighed, "Whatever. Next turn, we use it,see?"

Nabbit nodded reluctantly.

Mario reached into his pocket and held out a Mushroom, then threw it over to Luigi, who caught it with his mouth. He chewed it up and swallowed, restoring almost all of his HP.

Luigi ran up to Popple and tried to jump on his head again, but was knocked down by Popple's- well, Mario's- hammer.

Popple flung his sack to the sidelines and proceeded to do a handstand. Nabbit picked up his legs and spun around multiple times before flinging him away. Popple curled up into a ball as he shot towards Luigi, who didn't quite ready his hammer in time to knock him away. Popple smashed into the younger brother, knocking down a half of his remaining HP, bringing him down to low HP. Once Popple had landed, admittedly quite roughly, he stood up and jogged back over to his sack and slung it back over his shoulder.

Green K. Kid looked over at Popple and Nabbit with awe, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging open. Red K. Kid was shocked, but not as much as Green. Blue K. Kid was more concernec about Luigi, though.

Blue K. Kid rummaged through the bros.' inventory and pulled a mushroom that was collected from the last battle with Popple. He made a small signal to Luigi before throwing the mushroom to him. Luigi ate said mushroom and regained almost all of his HP.

Green K. Kid was finally able to collect himself, and shouted, "Did you _see_ that, Red?!"

"Are you kidding? Of **course** I did!" Red K. Kid replied just as loud.

"Heheh, how'd you like _that_? That there was our Bros. Attack, see?" Popple declared.

Nabbit leaned over to Popple and whispered, "I thought you weren't meant to tell them that."

Popple's eyes widened with surprise.

"Uh, forget I said any of that!" he yelped quickly, waving his hand rapidly in front of him.

"They used a BROS. ATTACK?!" Green K. Kid shouted even louder.

"Right in my ear, bro," Red K. Kid grumbled, rubbing the left side of his head.

Mario ran up to Nabbit and jumped on his head three times before messing up again.

"Might be losing my mojo…" he mumbled under his breath as he ran back.

"Luigi!" Blue K. Kid yelled.

Luigi looked over at Blue K. Kid, who advised, "I think that if you try to jump on Popple again, you're just gonna get knocked down again. Hit him with your hammer."

Luigi gave Blue K. Kid a thumbs up before running up to Popple and hitting him with his hammer, forcing Mario's stolen hammer out of Popple's sack, as well as a few other items, including some of the Hammer Bro.'s stock. The K. Kid Trio scrabbled over to collect these.

"I bet those two think they're _so cool_ , using a Bros. Attack," Blue K. Kid grumbled to his peers with annoyance, rolling his eyes at Popple and Nabbit. That gave Mario an idea… But it would have to wait until later.

Popple reached into his sack and threw small hammers at the bros., most of which were likely stolen from the Hammer Bro. Most of these hammers were jumped over, but some managed to hit the plumbers.

Nabbit turned his back to Mario and Luigi and walked up to them. Mario and Luigi readied their hammers. Nabbit turned around and ran at Luigi, but tripped right at the last second and dealt damage in the form of accidentally toppling over Luigi.

"Well, it's something," Popple muttered under his breath.

"Hey, Popple! _We_ can play that game too!" Mario said bravely.

"…Game?" Popple questioned. His eyes slowly widened with fear. "He doesn't mean what I _think_ he means, does he?"

He glanced over at Luigi and asked, "You ready, bro?"

"You betcha!" Luigi replied enthusiastically.

Mario and Luigi lined up, Luigi being the one in front and Mario being about a metre behind him. Luigi bent down, waiting for Mario.

"Go for Nabbit!" Mario shouted, waving a hand. Mario ran up to Luigi and jumped off him in a leap-frog style, twirling around in the air. Luigi ran up to Nabbit and did almost star-like pose. Mario landed back down on Luigi and jumped off his shoulders. Nabbit glanced up at the now approaching Mario with fear as he spun down on him like a drill, inflicting a fair bit of damage. The force of the blow pushed Nabbit into the sand, leaving him stuck there.

"Oh geez," Nabbit said simply.

"For a minute I thought that wouldn't work!" Mario said with relief, "It's been so long since we've used that one!"

"Looks like I'm fighting alone now…" Popple mumbled. "But there's no worries, see? I've got hammers!" he declared, instantly perking up.

He reached into his sack and threw small hammers at bros. once again. Like last time, most of these hammers were jumped over.

"I'm…out of hammers. Well, surplus, see?" Popple said with slight concern.

"Alright, Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi, time to deal the final blows!" Red K. Kid cheered.

Mario ran up to Popple and hit him with his hammer, while Luigi jumped on his head.

Popple fell to his knees. "Urk… You two are more tough than I first though, see?"

He slowly turned himself around to face Nabbit. He pushed himself to his feet, grabbed one of Nabbit's large ears and pulled him out of the sand.

"Owwwwwww," Nabbit moaned, the that was pulled flopping down from the pain.

"Now," Blue K. Kid said hardly, "You stole some stuff from that hardware store over there, didn't you?"

Nabbit mumbled, "Yes—"

"NOPE!" Popple suddenly interrupted. "NO WE DID NOT, SEE?"

"Wow. That…was a terrible lie," Green K. Kid said, his eyebrows raised.

"Now hand over the hardware!" Red K. Kid demanded.

"Oh, _**fine!**_ " Popple huffed, rolling his eyes angrily. He reached into his sack and handed over the rest of the Hammer Bro.'s hardware.

"And now we retreat, see? C'mon, Rookie!"

Popple and Nabbit limped away slowly.

Mario handed the elderly Hammer Bro. his goods.

"Thanks lads," the Hammer Bro. said.

"No problem, sir!" Green K. Kid replied cheerfully.

"We're here looking for Mr. Bowser, since you were probably wondering, sir," Red K. Kid explained to the Hammer Bro.

"Ah, so that's why you two Mario Bros. are here," the Hammer Bro. replied. "Just a warnin', it gets lot tougher the further you go into the Darklands. Not to mention everyone's gone Swoop-poop crazy. In short, watch out fer yourselves, okay?"

"Will do!" Mario said.

"That's the spirit," the Hammer Bro. chuckled. "See you!"

"Bye!" Red K. Kid shouted, waving as he walked backwards with the rest of the trio and the Mario Bros.


	8. Chapter 2-4: An Electrifying Battle

"Once more, bro!"

Mario and Luigi were practicing Bros. Attacks to west of the wharf on a small beach.

"But you've been practicing for aaaaaaagessssssss," Green K. Kid moaned.

"Yeahhhhhhh," Red K. Kid added.

Blue K. Kid said nothing, but looked just as bored as Red and Green.

Mario and Luigi lined up, with Mario in front and Luigi behind him. Luigi waved his hand before running up and jumping above Mario's head. Mario held up his arms in preparation for Luigi's landing. Luigi bounced down on Mario's head then jumped off. Mario ran ahead and bent down, and Luigi bounced off him for an landed on the sand.

"They've been practicing for while now, shouldn't they, like, get a drink or something?" Green K. Kid wondered aloud.

"I dunno, but they're taking too long," Red K. Kid replied, leaning down and picking up a pebble. He threw the pebble as far as he could. The pebble made a _clink_ as it hit a small, red spike coming out of the sand. The sand around the spike shifted and the shell that the spike belonged to lifted out of the ground as the Koopa wearing it clawed its way out of the sand. Two other Koopas of the same species arose from the sand, with the only difference being that the other two had blue shells instead of red. The three looked over at the K. Kid Trio.

"Uh, hey there," Red K. Kid laughed nervously.

The red-shelled Koopa growled at Red K. Kid. Then the three Koopas sat, staring at him.

Blue K. Kid stated, "I don't think they're going to atta-"

He was cut off by the three Koopas suddenly running up to the K. Kid Trio. Or rather, they were rapidly waddling up to them.

"OH MY GRAMBI WHAT DID YOU _DO?!_ " Blue K. Kid shrieked as the three Koopas came rushing at them.

"I JUST THREW A PEBBLE AT THEM!" Red K. Kid shouted back.

Mario and Luigi looked over at the commotion with wide eyes.

"Oh jeez," Luigi muttered, already knowing what his brother would do.

Mario ran over to the Koopas and jumped on one of their shells, starting a battle.

"Heeeeeeeey! Don't forget about meeeeeee!" Luigi shouted as he ran over to the battle scene.

Mario stood in place and waited for his younger brother come over.

Once he arrived, Luigi knelt over and panted as he caught his breath. Once he did, he sttod up and asked, "Bro, what of Koopas are they?"

"They're Electro-Koopas. I encountered them on my trip to Isle Delfino," Mario explained.

The red Electro-Koopa pushed itself up and slammed down on the ground, creating a shockwave of sand. It travelled quickly towards the bros., who managed to jump over it. The left blue Electro-Koopas briefly raised its front left foot and shot a small lightning bolt at Mario, who got struck by the bolt. The right blue Electro-Koopa did the same, but this time Mario managed to avoid the lightning bolt.

Mario ran up to the left blue Electro-Koopa and jumped on the centre of its shell, but only dealt a small damage. Luigi tried to do the same, but also dealt the same amount of damage.

Blue K. Kid inhaled angrily, Red K. Kid facepalmed and Green K. Kid just looked at them with disappointment.

"You don't deal _nearly_ as much damage when you jump on their shell," Red K. Kid muttered angrily. "You guys have been doing this hero thing longer than we've been alive, come on."

Mario facepalmed with realisation and Luigi simply said, "Oh. Whoopsie."

"But now you remember!" Green K. Kid told the bros.

Mario nodded as the left blue Electro-Koopa pushed itself up and threw its shell at Mario as it came down, bowling the poor man over. Luigi rushed over to his fallen brother and helped him up on his feet. The red Electro-Koopa pushed itself up and slammed down on the ground, creating a shockwave of sand. Mario managed to jump over it, but Luigi wasn't so lucky, instead tripping on the wave when he was trying to jump over it. He got himself off the ground and dusted the sand off his overalls. The right blue Electro-Koopa lifted its right foot and shot a lightning bolt at Luigi, who narrowly dodged the attack.

Mario and Luigi lined up, Luigi being the one in front and Mario being about a metre behind him. Luigi bent down, waiting for Mario.

"Aim for the blue one on the right!" Mario shouted, waving a hand. Mario ran up to Luigi and jumped off him in a leap-frog style, twirling around in the air. Luigi ran up to the right blue Electro-Koopa and did an almost star-like pose. Mario landed back down on Luigi and jumped off his shoulders. Mario jumped down on the blue Electro-Koopa in a drill-like fashion, dealing some damage to it. Once they had returned to their places, Luigi pulled out his hammer and brought it down on the same blue Electro-Koopa. It dealt a bit of damage.

Luigi ran up the left Electro-Koopa and jumped four times on its back. He ceased his attack when the Electro-Koopa showed defeat.

The right blue Electro-Koopa pushed itself up and threw its shell at Luigi as it came down, who was bowled over by the shell. The red Electro-Koopa raised its right front foot and shot a small lightning bolt at Luigi, who barely dodged the attack.

Mario pulled out his hammer, ran up to the right Electro-Koopa and brought it down on its shelless back, dealing quite a bit of damage. Luigi ran up to the same Electro-Koopa and jumped two times on it back, stopping his attack when the Electro-Koopa showed defeat.

The red Electro-Koopa was not happy to see its companions defeated. It growled at the Mario Bros. and a red aura surrounded it.

"Wow. That escalated quicker than I thought it would," Blue K. Kid commented.

"I'm just randomly guessing here, but I think it's so angry it _forcefully raised its stats..._ " Green K. Kid told Mario and Luigi.

"Watch out," Red K. Kid added.

The red Electro-Koopa pushed itself up and slammed down on the ground, then repeated a second time, creating two shockwaves instead of one. Both Mario and Luigi jumped over the first wave, but Mario jumped a few seconds early and was hit by the second wave, causing him to topple over with defeat.

"Oh no!" Luigi exclaimed, looking at his fallen brother in shock.

Green K. Kid looked at Blue K. Kid and asked, "Do we have any 1-Ups in the bag?"

"I think we do..." Blue K. Kid mumbled, opened the bag up and started looking through it. His eyes widened seconds later as he muttered with disbelief, "We don't have any 1-Ups."

"Are you _**kidding?!**_ " Red K. Kid shrieked.

"Why would I?" Blue K. Kid snapped back.

Luigi looked over at the K. Kid Trio with concern.

"D-Don't worry, Mr. Luigi! We may not have any 1-Ups, but I'm sure we'll be able to get some after the battle is over!" Green K. Kid reassured.

Luigi nodded, but still showed his concerned expression.

"Kick his butt, Mr. Luigi!" Green K. Kid shouted, his hands cupped next to his mouth.

Luigi ran up to the Electro-Koopa and jumped on his shell twice, landing the jump too late on the third try. Both hits only dealt one damage.

As Luigi ran back to his position, the Electro-Koopa pushed itself up and slammed down on the ground, creating a shockwave that swept over Luigi and forced him to the ground. Red K. Kid, full of anger, ran up to the Electro-Koopa and jumped on its shell. Again, only one damage was dealt per hit.

"Guys, I don't think this is going to work," Green K. Kid told his friends. "But I think we might be able to calm it down by talking to it...?"

"Green, you're NUTS! That thing's mad as Mr. Bowser on a bad day!" Red K. Kid shouted at Green.

"But we have to try!" Green K. Kid exclaimed.

"Better than getting a Too Bad," Blue K. Kid added.

Red K. Kid sighed, "You're right..."

Green K. Kid looked at Luigi and asked, "Do you mind if we just interrupt for a little...?"

"Not at all!" Luigi replied.

Green K. Kid nodded, and he briskly walked up to the Electro-Koopa, Blue and Red K. Kid not far behind.

"Excuse me, sir, but why are you attacking us?" Green K. Kid asked the Electro-Koopa. The Electro-Koopa just growled at the trio.

"I think we know the answer to that one..." Blue K. Kid grumbled, his arms crossed.

Green K. Kid glared at him before going back to the Electro-Koopa. "You're causing Mr. Luigi a lot of trouble. Could you, perhaps, cease your attack and leave us be?"

The Electro-Koopa squinted at Green K. Kid for a prolonged amount of time before snapping at him, making the trio jump.

"Okay, that's not going to work. Sorry Mr. Luigi, but you're on your own!" Green K. Kid exclaimed before quickly running off with his peers.

Luigi watched them dash off, wide-eyed with shock. He looked back at the angry Electro-Koopa and simply muttered, "Mama mia."

Luigi pulled out his hammer and ran up to the Electro-Koopa. He swung too quickly and his hammer became a mere stick. But because of video game logic, the hammer part respawned as soon as the blow was dealt. But it's not like the miss really mattered. The attack only dealt one damage anyway.

Luigi managed to scamper back to his position just before the Electro-Koopa started its next attack. It pushed itself up and slammed down on the ground, making yet another shockwave that Luigi managed to jump over.

The next turn went as you'd expect. Luigi attacks. He deals one damage per hit. The Electro-Koopa attacks with a shockwave.

"This is taking far too long," Red K. Kid complained, his arms crossed tightly.

"Yeah? Well, if you hadn't of thrown that pebble, none of this would've happened," Blue K. Kid retorted.

"Oho! I get it! _I_ get it! You think you're **so cool** because you got a whole bunch of extra smarts, don'tcha?" Red K. Kid argued.

"That's not it at all!"

"Then what the Underwhere _is it?_ "

"Guys, please!" Green K. Kid begged. "We don't need fighting at a time like this!"

Red K. Kid opened his mouth to say something, but was immediately interrupted by the fain sound of Mario's phone ringing.

The K. Kid Trio and Luigi looked over at Mario.

"It's in his pocket, isn't it," Blue K. Kid said.

There was a small silence before Green K. Kid called out, "I'll get it!"

Green K. Kid scrambled over to the unconscious Mario as he looked for his phone, and Luigi directes his focus back to the fight at hand.

He ran up to the Electro-Koopa and managed to jump on its shell five times before running back to his position.

The Electro-Koopa pushed itself up and slammed down on the ground twice, making two shockwaves. Luigi almost got hit by both of them, as he incorrectly times his jumps. It's a wonder how he managed to jump over both, really.

"You're just going to chip away at him, Luigi! There's no other choice!" Blue K. Kid called out to Luigi.

" _You'd think he'd would've picked that up by now..._ " Red K. Kid muttered.

"Can you pipe down a bit, Blue?" Green K. Kid shouted to Blue K. Kid.

"I was just telling Lui—" Blue K. Kid was cut off when he , as well as everyone else, caught sight of something that looked rather put of place.

A yellow ball with orange stars flew into the Electro-Koopa, hitting the side of its head.

Everyone looked at the Electro-Koopa with wide eyes, wondering what was coming next.

Sure enough, Lemmy came bouncing over to the Mario Bros. The Electro-Koopa looked over at the small Koopaling for a few moments, then shuffled away, forgetting what it was doing.

"Yeah! You better not try to hurt 'em again!" Lemmy yelled at the Electro-Koopa.

He turned to face Luigi and said, "Hey guys!"

"Hi...?" Blue K. Kid greeted him, albeit with confusion.

"I saw that you guys were in trouble, so I came over and totally _owned_ that guy for you!" Lemmy told them.

Luigi started, "You-a just made him—"

"Nah, I _ROCKED_ him!" Lemmy argued.

"O-Okay," Luigi said quietly.

"Quick question, though," Lemmy added, "why is the green dude kneeling next to Mario? And why is Mario face-first in the sand? Did that Koopa sing him a lullaby or something?"

"No, uh, the Koopa knocked him out," Luigi explained.

"Yikes," Lemmy replied. "I bet you want some 1-Ups, right?"

"YES! Yes please!" Red K. Kid suddenly shouted.

"Okie dokie, then!" Lemmy cheered. He turned himself around and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Hey, Iggy!"

The green-haired Koopaling could just be seen over by the hardware store. "Yeah?" he replied as loud as he could.

"Could ya get some 1-Ups and bring 'em over here?" Lemmy asked loudly.

"What?" Iggy shouted back.

"COULD YOU GET SOME 1-UPS AND BRING THEM OVER HERE," Lemmy repeated slowly.

"Get some 1-Ups and cut off their hair?" Iggy asked. "1-Ups don't even **have** hair, what the Underwhere Lemmy."

" _NO!_ GET, some 1-UPS, **AND** BRING them **OVER HERE!** " Lemmy repeated even slower.

"Ohhhhh, okay!" Iggy replied, then went around the corner, presumably to get the 1-Up supply from Morton.

He jogged over a minute later with 3 1-Ups in hand. He handed them to Lemmy and asked between breaths, "Why'd you need them?"

"Mario and Luigi need 'em!" Lemmy replied. He tossed a 1-Up to Luigi, who just barely caught it.

"Wait a second," Red K. Kid said, "I thought we had 1-Ups already?"

He leaned over Blue K. Kid and checked the bag. A unimpressed look swept across his face as he thought aloud, "We had one left."

"No we didn't!" Blue K. Kid exclaimed.

"Yeees we did," Red K. Kid replied, pulling out the 1-Up and holding it in front of Blue's face.

Luigi jogged over to Mario and Green K. Kid and gently fed Mario the 1-Up Mushroom Lemmy gave him. Mario slowly awoke, and Luigi watched with concern and anticipation. Mario grumbled and sat up, placing a hand on his head.

"Wha...?"

Luigi embraced him into a hug. Mario accepted the hug and wrapped his arms around Luigi.

"Oh, hey, Mario's up now!" Green K. Kid said to the person on the phone. He held the phone out for Mario and said, "It's for you."

Mario released himself from the hug and stood up, grabbing the phone as he went. How he didn't fall down is a miracle.

"Hello?" Mario said.

"Ah, Mario! I was getting a little worried there." The person on the phone was none other than Kamek. "Green told me that your brother was in the middle of a fight and apparently you were defeated...?"

"Oh." Mario commented.

"Anyway, sorry for calling at such an inconvenient time!" Kamek apologised. "So, any sign of Master Bowser?"

"Green K. Kid didn't tell you himself...?" Mario asked, glancing at the Koopa in question.

"It just didn't occur to me," Green K. Kid told Mario, shrugging.

"No," Kamek replied.

"Ah, well, unfortunately no," Mario told Kamek.

"...I should've expected as much. Well, I think next you should go to Kooperston. It's only a short walk from Turtilko," Kamek said.

"Gotcha," Mario replied.

"Well, hear from you later," Kamek said before ending the call.

Mario put his phone back in his pocket and declared, "Alright, team! We're-a going to Kooperston next!"


	9. Chapter 3-1: A New Faux

The Mario Bros. and the K. Kid Trio walked into Kooperston. Some grey clouds had started to cover the sky, and the group wanted to find a place to stay before it started to rain.

As Mario briskly lead the way, Green K. Kid couldn't help but overhear a rather suspicious conversation.

He tugged on Luigi's sleeve and pointed in the direction which the hushed voices were coming from.

The green pair strayed from the group and hid behind the nearest wall to see what was up.

"I _told_ you that I won't do it! Not for that much!"

"Well... If you won't do it for Mushrooms, then will you do it for _this?_ "

Green K. Kid gasped. "Popple!"

"How many do you have?"

"Only a couple. Like... two."

"...I'll do it, _AS LONG_ as you give me those _now_."

"What?! Why would I do that?! You'd just run off with them if I gave them to you _now_ , see?"

"I'm not that kind of person, though. I _will_ keep my side of the deal."

"That's the sorta thing a liar would say, bo-"

"I would NEVER break a promise."

"Well, if you say so..."

"Now come on, little guy! Let's go find Red and Greenie!"

Luigi and Green K. Kid's widened as they gasped with shock. They turned and ran back to the group as fast as their feet could carry them. Needless to say, the others were surprised to see them suddenly run up to them like they were running away from a monster.

"...What is it?" Mario asked.

Green K. Kid managed to blurt out between breaths, "It's...! It's Popple...!"

"That's right!"

The group turned to see Popple and Nabbit with a small tanuki that only came up to Nabbit's knees. His fur was brown and he had a darker brown, rounded stripe on his forehead, three on his back and three thick stripes of the same colour on his large tail. His face was mostly covered in dark brown fur that went around his black eyes, all the way down to his underbelly. He had small, pointed ears, skinny legs and thin, pointed dull yellow pupils, as well as a big, black, round nose.

"Is that them?" the tanuki asked.

"Yeah, that's them," Nabbit confirmed.

Popple announced, "Guess what, losers! We got a skilled fighter to take you down, see? Yeah, he looks puny, but he's a real powerhouse!"

"Although we haven't seen him fight... We're just taking his word for it..." Nabbit added, his voice lowered to a mumble.

"And so you should!" the tanuki said with pride, puffing his chest out. "I haven't met anyone that could beat me down, ever!"

"That's a pretty big claim to make..." Luigi commented.

Popple turned his attention to the tanuki and asked, "You ready?"

"Of course."

Popple gave the tanuki two Super Leaves, and the tanuki stepped forward.

"I'll take them on myself," the tanuki told the two thieves. "You go do…whatever it is you do."

Popple nodded before he ran off, Nabbit following.

"I suppose I should introduce myself before we battle. Name's Fauxnuki, and you are… Oh, you're the Mario Brothers, aren't you?"

Fauxnuki gave a small chuckle. "Well, won't this be fun."

Mario and Luigi got into their battle stances and prepared to do battle with Fauxnuki.

Fauxnuki ran up to Mario, turned his back on him and swung his tail twice. This sudden attack was unexpected for the red plumber, and got hit both times.

Mario ran up to Fauxnuki and jumped on his tail couple of times before losing balance. Luigi ran up to him and performed the same attack, dealing three blows to his tail.

Fauxnuki ran up to Luigi, turned his back on him and swung his tail twice. Luigi managed to jump just in time to land on the tanuki's tail mid-swing, knocking own his health points by a little. Fauxnuki ceased his attack and ran back to his spot, slightly wincing in pain.

Mario pulled out his hammer, ran up to Fauxnuki and swung it down on his tail. Luigi performed the same attack as he did as he did on his last turn, jumping on the tanuki's tail three times.

Meanwhile, Blue K. Kid was sniffing the air, much to the confusion of his peers.

"What **ARE** you doing?" Red K. Kid questioned.

"…Do you smell that?" Blue K. Kid responded, not bothering to answer Red K. Kid's question.

This inquiry intrigued Green K. Kid, and he started smelling the air to find out exactly what Blue K. Kid was talking about. After a few moments of sniffing the air, he nodded.

"Yeah, I smell it," he replied.

Red K. Kid crossed his arms. "Alright, that's it. I've gotta find out what you two are rambling about."

He took in one big sniff and frowned. "You guys are crazy. I'm not smelling _anything_."

"You've gotta sniff a bit more. Trust me – it's there," Blue K. Kid replied.

" _Fiiiiiine_ ," Red K. Kid grumbled.

He took another deep breath. "Still not smelling it."

"You've got to do little sniffs! Big ones won't do it!" Green K. Kid told him.

Red K. Kid sighed, then took several more sniffs.

"You're right! There _IS_ some weird smell around here!" he exclaimed.

"It's such a weird smell, isn't it?" Green K. Kid asked his peers.

"Yeah," Blue K. Kid replied. "It's almost like it smells like…"

"MR. BOWSER!" the K. Kid Trio shouted in unison.

The Mario Bros. and Fauxnuki looked at the trio. The brothers looked slightly confused, while Fauxnuki had a look of sheer annoyance on his face.

"We found a trace of Mr. Bowser!" Green K. Kid exclaimed.

"Yeah, but there seems to be something else mixed in…" Blue K. Kid added before sniffing the air.

"What is it?" Red K. Kid asked Blue.

Blue K. Kid gave Red a simple glare.

"Do you know?" Red K. Kid urged.

Blue K. Kid just ignored him. After a couple more moments of Blue K. Kid sniffing the air while everyone else just watched on awkwardly, Blue K. Kid spoke up again.

"It smells like garbage."

Red and Green K. Kid scrunched up their faces in disgust, Mario and Luigi looked varying levels of confused and Fauxnuki was still annoyed.

"And surely the garbage smell can't come from Mr. Mario or Mr. Luigi, or either of you two, so…" Blue K. Kid pointed at Fauxnuki and shouted, "It must be you!"

"Me?" Fauxnuki questioned. " _Surely_ you are mistaken. I **am** _ **not**_ a scavenger. It must just be someone taking out their garbage."

Red K. Kid completely ignored Fauxnuki's claim and told the Mario Bros., "This guy has Mr. Bowser all over him, AND he's worse than trash! You gotta beat him quick so we can get him to tell us where Mr. Bowser is!"

Mario performed his hammer attack once again, and Luigi also performed a hammer attack.

Fauxnuki then propped himself up on his tail, which took a few seconds. He scrunched up his tail slowly, then once he was low enough, he pushed himself off the ground with his hind legs. The bros. readied their hammers, knowing that the tanuki was going to attack from above. But Fauxnuki nor the Mario Bros. were expecting him to descend so fast. Fauxnuki fell on Mario's head and fell onto his back, wide-eyed with shock. He hastily returned to his spot.

Mario ran up to Fauxnuki and jumped on his tail once before disorienting himself.

"Seems like Mario hasn't recovered from that sudden attack too well," Green K. Kid commented.

Luigi pulled out his hammer, ran up to Fauxnuki and swung it down on his tail.

Red K. Kid ran over and shot a fireball at the tanuki, dealing some extra damage.

Fauxnuki panted, "You think you're so smart…? Ha… Smart this."

He grabbed a Super Leaf out of his On Hand and placed it on his head. The K. Kid Trio gasped as Fauxnuki transformed into Mario. Fauxnuki leapt about, slowly approaching the bros. It looked as if he was headed toward Mario, but dove at Luigi at the last second. Fauxnuki ran back to his spot and returned to his original form.

Mario ran up to Fauxnuki and jumped on his tail twice before losing balance. Luigi performed his hammer attack again.

Fauxnuki's right ear twitched, then he dug under the ground. It was a few seconds before he popped out, attacking the green plumber again. The tanuki returned to his spot by going back through his tunnel before some Monty Moles came to refill the dirt or something of the like.

Mario performed another jump attack, only managing to land a single jump.

"Finish the battle with a Bros. Attack!" Red K. Kid shouted.

"Yeah! Bros. Attacks are cool!" Green K. Kid added.

"But you were complaining about them only a few hours ago!" Mario said.

"We weren't complaining about Bros. Attacks themselves, that'd be silly," Red K. Kid argued. "We were complaining about you guys taking so long practicing them!"

"We don't need to do a Bros. Attack, though," Luigi said. "We're almost done with the battle."

" _Pleeeeeease_?" Green K. Kid begged, balling his hands together.

Luigi sighed. "No."

"Awwwww," Red and Green K. Kid moaned.

Luigi ran up to Fauxnuki and jumped on his tail three times before Fauxnuki's tail curled between his legs, showing that he admitted defeat.

"You… Are as strong as they say…" Fauxnuki panted. "Maybe even stronger…"

He flashed a smirk at the Mario Bros. "Good to see I'll have some worthy foes."

He bounded up to Mario and once he was on the plumber's shoulder, he snatched his hat, jumped off his shoulder and ran away.

"Hey, where are going?!" Red K. Kid shouted. "Get back here and **give back Mr. Mario's cap!** "

* * *

 **Now I'm usually one to have Author's Notes, but I have a thing to explain!**

 **You may have noticed during the Fauxnuki fight that he got the Super Leaf out of a place called On Hand. This is basically a really small Inventory which is completely invisible and no-one quite knows how it works but they don't question it. It can hold up to four items (multiples of items are stacked).**

 **So yeah! That's all, I hope you're enjoying the story so far!**


	10. Chapter 3-2: Chasing Fauxnuki

Fauxnuki had barely ran 100 metres when he heard the sound of the Mario Bros.' shoes on the tarmac road.

' _Aw, great, they're after me. Guess it should've been expected, these_ ARE _the Mario Bros. after all,'_ Fauxnuki thought grouchily.

He heard Blue K. Kid shout from behind, "Why is he running **in the middle of the road?!** "

' _Well if you're so unhappy about it,'_ Fauxnuki retaliated in his head, _'then I'll move!'_

He swerved into an alleyway on his right.

" **WHAT?!** " Blue K. Kid shrieked. He groaned as he followed Mario and Luigi into the alleyway.

Fauxnuki's ears pricked up as he heard the Mario Bros.' shoes getting louder. He shot a wide-eyed glance over his shoulder and sure enough, Mario was quickly approaching.

He spotted a dumpster and immediately got an idea. He quickly propped himself on his tail and shot himself up, barely getting out of the way of Mario's gloved hands.

Fauxnuki climbed up on the nearby windowsill and ran inside whatever room he happened to be in, giving no regard to those who were in the room. The door opened at just the right moment, as a Koopa Troopa holding a box of pizza came in to say that he got said pizza. Fauxnuki slipped right past him. Mario and co. continued to chase after him, apologising to the traumatized Koopas in the room.

Fauxnuki found himself in a corridor, with many doors and a staircase nearby. He decided to run down the stairs, startling at least three Koopas with his sudden presence. Mario and co. were still chasing after the tanuki. Luigi apologised to every Koopa as he followed his older brother.

Once Fauxnuki had jumped off the final step, he found himself in a reception room of sorts, but what was _really_ important were the glass double doors. He dashed out them, with Mario and co. hot on his heels.

Fauxnuki ran in the middle of the road once again, much to the annoyance of Blue K. Kid. When he heard Mario approaching, he jumped into the back of a Ute and blew a raspberry at Mario Bros. as he placed the red cap he had stolen on his head.

"OH! MY GOSH!" shrieked Blue K. Kid as he threw his arms in the air with exasperation. "ARE YOU _**KIDDING?!**_ "

"Don't worry, Blue," Mario said, "we'll catch him soon! For now, how about we just go around town?"

Luigi gladly accepted this idea, Red and Green K. Kid just nodded, and Blue K. Kid sighed angrily and grumbled, " _Fiiiiiiine_."

"And if you sense a trace of Bowser at any time, just tell us, okay?"

"Okie dokie!" Green K. Kid chirped.

The group of five had made a list of places to go while they were in town, and the first stop was to the local supermarket to buy some supplies. Mario and Luigi went to get some more mushrooms and some syrup for their BP, and just general things that would be needed later in their adventure. The K. Kid Trio just ran off looking for candy.

"I think we should also get some venison," Luigi stated while he and his brother walked down the baby aisle, looking for the K. Kid Trio.

"What?" Mario asked, "That seems like…a pretty odd thing to get."

"Kamek said we should if we could," Luigi replied. "Remember?"

"Oh yeah!" Mario said while he clicked his fingers, remembering what Kamek had said before they left for Shellington. The brothers paused and looked over their shoulders. "But we just passed the meat aisle."

"We can go back and get it!" Luigi told his brother.

"You do it," Mario said.

"Why me?"

"You brought it up."

"But what if I don't want to get it?"

"…"

"…"

Luigi sighed. "I have to get it, don't I."

"Yep."

"Okie dokie."

Luigi jogged back to meat aisle and Mario continued to on his mini-quest to find the K. Kid Trio.

Meanwhile, in the drink isle, the K. Kid Trio were discussing what flavour of store brand fizzy they liked best.

"Lime is _the best_ flavour, guys! Don't deny it!" Red K. Kid exclaimed.

"But that's where you're _wrong,_ Red. It's obviously Lemonade," Blue K. Kid objected.

"Seriously, Blue? No-one likes Lemonade unless it's from an actual lemon. The best flavour of store brand fizzy is Orange," Green K. Kid countered.

"Orange? Seriously?" Blue K. Kid replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Well at least they don't have _banana_ flavoured fizzy. That'd be gross," Red K. Kid stated.

"Well _I'd_ have banana flavoured fizzy," Blue K. Kid protested.

Green K. Kid sighed. "Guys, we've been over this. Blue is the only Koopa in existence who likes yellow lollies. Or yellow sugar-filled anything."

"No I'm not!" Blue K. Kid argued.

"Uh, yeah," Red K. Kid objected.

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of footsteps as Mario came over and said, "There you are!"

"Oh hi Mr. Mario!" Green K. Kid said joyfully. "We were just talking about how-"

Green K. Kid received a cold glare from Blue.

" _Weeeeee_ were just talking about what flavour of store brand fizzy we like!"

"What flavour do you like, Mr. Mario?"

"Me? I'm pretty neutral on it," Mario replied.

"Oh," Red. K. Kid commented with a hint of disappointment.

"Anyway," Mario continued, "I just came over to get you. We're almost done with the shopping."

"Aww, really?" Green K. Kid moaned.

"But we didn't get any candy!" Red K. Kid complained.

"Oh, don't worry. We've got something better." Mario said with a wink before heading back down the aisle.

"What could be better than candy?" Red K. Kid questioned as he and the rest of the trio followed the red plumber.

Luigi was already waiting for his brother and the K. Kid Trio when the four came over to the green plumber.

"So, Mr. Mario," Blue K. Kid grumbled, "what's this 'something better' you've got us?"

Luigi pulled a pack of venison out of the shopping bag and all three of the K. Kid Trio gasped with excitement.

"OF COURSE! VENISON IS THE BEST THING ON THE PLANET!" Red K. Kid yelled, causing most of the other shoppers to glare at him.

"ALSO!" Green K. Kid added, completely changing the subject, "We saw some really good healing items while we went down to the lollies! I think you should get some!"

"Alright," Mario said, knowing that he had to go with it, "show me these items."

A couple of minutes passed when Green K. Kid finally managed to get the bros. to the right aisle.

"There they are!" Green K. Kid sang, gesturing to some mushrooms and nuts.

"Are those… Super Mushrooms?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah!" Green K. Kid replied.

"Wow! I didn't think I'd find any of these in the Darklands!" Luigi remarked, picking one up and admiring it in his hands.

"You gotta buy, like, 50! Of each!" Red K. Kid suggested excitedly.

"We can't buy 50 of each," Mario replied, "We don't have enough Coins."

"Oh." Red K. Kid was silent for a few seconds before asking, " _25_ of each?"

"No," Mario responded.

"Aww."

The Bros. bought 5 of each, as well as 3 Mushrooms and 3 Syrup jars, then continued walking through the town.

"So, Mr. Luigi, what's next on that list?" Red K. Kid asked.

"Ice cream~" Luigi replied.

The K. Kid Trio gasped with delight.

"REALLY?" Green K. Kid asked

Luigi nodded with a bright smile.

"Awwww YEAH!" the K. Kid Trio cheered in unison, punching the air.

"And speaking of ice cream…" Mario added, pointing to a van in the distance, "There's the ice cream truck!"

The gang ran over to the ice cream truck, the K. Kid Trio leading the pack. The Koopa Paratroopa smiled as they approached.

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Can I… Can I have…" Red K. Kid pondered aloud. "Can I have Lime please, sir?"

"And can I have Cookies and Cream?!" Blue K. Kid quickly added.

"And can I have Vanilla please?" Green K. Kid asked.

Mario and Luigi talked among themselves before Mario spoke up, "We'll both take Chocolate."

"Great!" the Paratroopa chirped. "Do ya want one scoop or two?"

"TWO!" Red and Blue K. Kid shouted.

"I'll just take one," Green K. Kid replied.

"We'll also take one," Mario added.

"Okay," the Paratroopa smiled, and began scooping the ice creams. He handed them to the gang as he finished them, which certainly delighted the K. Kid Trio. Once Mario and Luigi's ice creams were being made, Mario got out the appropriate change for the ice creams and placed them on the counter. Luigi passed Mario's ice cream to him once it was made.

"Thank you sir!" Green K. Kid said cheerfully as the five walked off with their ice creams.

"So," Blue K. Kid said between licks of his ice cream, "what plans _did_ you have before, well, y'know…"

The brothers thought before answering.

"Well, we were planning to have a party sometime," Luigi replied, "just a small one though."

"And if Bowser had come to kidnap the princess again, then we would've gone to save her again," Mario added.

"Well that's not a surprise!" Red K. Kid responded before taking a big bite out of his ice cream.

"What were _you_ going to do?" Luigi asked the K. Kid Trio.

Green K. Kid blinked with surprise.

"Well, the same as always, I guess," Green K. Kid replied.

"We had a little place under the castle where we lived and Kamek gave us food and water," Red K. Kid explained.

"And video games," Blue K. Kid added. "You can't forget the video games."

"Oh yeah! The video games!" Green K. Kid said. "Kamek also gave us a whole bunch of video games, as well as their consoles, to entertain us!"

Green K. Kid looked down slightly to see his ice cream melting on his hand, and quickly lapped it up. Blue and Red K. Kid followed suit.

Once the K. Kid Trio had finished their ice creams as fast as they could, Mario asked, "You want to hear some stories while you recover from brain freeze?"

The K. Kid Trio nodded.

"Well, once, this was a really long time ago, the Mushroom Kingdom wanted to host a play, but no-one knew what one to do," Mario started.

"And then I suggested that we made a play out of Mario's first confrontation with Bowser!" Luigi added.

Mario continued, "Yeah…! At first they weren't so sure, but we managed to convince them! We helped write the script, cast some minor characters, **and** make the props! It was a lot of hard work. We managed to convince Bowser to be in the play, and apparently the Koopalings managed to… "convince" him to be in the play as well. We already had a basic outline for the script, but fitting them in wasn't too hard."

"Oh wow!" Green K. Kid exclaimed. "That sounds really cool!"

Red K. Kid laughed behind Green.

"What's so funny…?" Green K. Kid asked.

"Get it…? Because… Because we ate ice cream, and, and ice cream's cold…"

There was a silence before Red K. Kid added, "Nevermind."

"Well, we've got stories as well!" Green K. Kid told the Mario Bros.

"We do?" Blue K. Kid asked.

"Yeah! About Mr. Bowser!"

Blue K. Kid's face lit up with realisation.

Green K. Kid began, "Yeah! So, this one time, Mr. Bowser tried to play this game!"

"…Which one," Red K. Kid responded flatly.

Green K. Kid thought for a bit before replying, "I'm pretty sure it was Kirby 64."

"OH YEAH!" Red K. Kid shouted excitedly.

"Yeah!" Green K. Kid replied. "So Mr. Bowser was trying to play Kirby 64, right? We had given him the controller and he had started playing the game, and then he accidently pulled off the joystick!"

"We still have no idea how he did it," Blue K. Kid added, holding back laughter.

The group approached a dairy, and a small Koopa Troopa, not much older than five, came running out with his mother walking behind him. The child held two small plastic bags containing lollies. They looked over at the Mario Bros., then up at their mother, who nodded.

"Hey, Mario and Luigi! Come over here!" they shouted excitedly, then ran over to a house at the end of the footpath they were on. The group followed them over. The house was an old wooden bungalow, ivy growing up he walls and parts missing. Most of the windows had been smashed, presumably by teenagers or other misfits. It was clear that the house had been through a lot over the years.

"Ya see this house behind me?" the child asked. "Apparently a wizard used to live in there! Grandma says she hasn't seen him in ages… Do ya think he's the mayor of a big city now?!"

"Well, wouldn't that be something," Luigi stated.

Red K. Kid started sniffing the air as the child offered the Mario Bros. one of their lollie packets.

"Guys, I think I can smell a trace of Mr. Bowser!" Red K. Kid exclaimed, looking off to the left. "Come on!"

Red K. Kid then ran off, Green and Blue chasing after him. Mario and Luigi looked on momentarily, bewildered.

"Go on, Mario and Luigi!" the child cheered. "And you can keep the lollies as well!"

Mario and Luigi ran off after the K. Kid Trio, waving goodbye to the Koopa Troop child as they went.

* * *

 **I did it, y'all. I managed to finish this chapter. Now just two more to go** **(uGHHHHH)** **. But fortunately, I have a good idea of how I want the next two chapters to go! And don't worry, they won't be as filler-y as this one ;)**

 **So I hope you have a good day, happy Easter (or whatever you celebrate), and if you don't celebrate Easter, well, I just hope you have a good day! Ciao!**


	11. Chapter 3-3: Hotel Mania

Fauxnuki sat at the edge of an alley, watching the legs of Koopas passing by slowly fade out of view. He was just resting. He looked up at the greying sky. It was going to rain later rather than sooner, but it still concerned him. He was going to have to find shelter soon if he wanted to stay safe. He poked his head out and looked both ways. To his right was a hotel only a few hundred meters away.

' _I should be able to run across to the hotel, and then-'_

He heard the sound of footsteps for the left and knew immediately who it was. In a moment of fear, he scuttled out of the alley as fast as he could and went inside the hotel with an unsuspecting Lakitu.

* * *

The K. Kid Trio burst through the hotel doors, Mario and Luigi not too far behind.

"Red, are you _sure_ that the trace is in here?" Luigi questioned.

Everyone in the foyer gave the group odd stares, ranging from slightly confused to completely and utterly confused.

Red K. Kid completely ignored Luigi's question, instead stomping up to the counter and placing his hands on the table top, trying to be cool yet menacing.

"Have you seen Fauxnuki?" Red K. Kid growled.

The receptionist looked over at her friend with a confused glance. A few murmurs from the Koopas in the foyer were heard, all of which questioned who Fauxnuki was and why Red K. Kid was acting the way he was.

"Um, no… We don't think so…? Who is this Fauxnuki…?" The receptionist replied.

Red K. Kid sighed. "Ah well."

Green and Blue K. Kid approached the counter and stood on either side of Red.

"Excuse my friend," Green K. Kid said. "We'd like to investigate this hotel, if you don't mind. We're searching for a, um, criminal. We're… police. And we've got the Mario Bros. helping us! This is a very serious matter."

The receptionist's friend giggled quietly, and nodded.

"Um, okay," the receptionist replied.

"Nice!" Red K. Kid cheered.

' _Are we really doing this?'_ Luigi thought.

"We're doing this! We're **actually** doing this!" Red K. Kid exclaimed.

"Soo, Mr. Edgy Detective Man Red K. Kid, where do we investigate first?" Green K. Kid asked cheekily.

"The… The… The what's-it-called? The… The… The f… The foyer! That's the floor we're on right now, right?" Red K. Kid replied in the deepest, gruffest voice he could muster.

Mario sighed with defeat, then said, "Yes, it is. Well, let's-a go."

The group of five split up to search the foyer, making several Koopas uncomfortable. The K. Kid Trio sensed a trace of Bowser, but it was quite weak, so they moved onto the first floor to see if they could find somewhere where Bowser's trail was stronger. They knocked on each door to see if anyone was in, and if they were, the person inside usually let them enter. The conversations went pretty much the same way. Red K. Kid, aka "Mr. Edgy Detective Man Red K. Kid", would ask in his deep gruff voice if they had seen Fauxnuki, and then Blue K. Kid would explain what he looks like. The occupant, or occupants, would then say that they hadn't seen him, then Mario, Luigi or Green K. Kid would thank them and apologise for interrupting. Sometimes the occupants would say that they didn't mind, then the gang would move on the next room.

When the gang arrived on the second floor, the K. Kid Trio sensed a little more of Bowser's trace, and the group decided to follow the trail as well as possible. Most of the second floor search went the same as the first one – knocking on doors and going through trial and error. It wasn't until near the end of the hall when they finally got some variation.

Mario knocked on the door softly, his fingers getting sore from knocking on so many doors.

"Oh gosh! Ohgoshohgoshoh- …What?"

"Go get the door."

"I don't wanna get the door!"

"Tooooo bad~"

"Urgh! Fine! I hate you sometimes…"

The door opened and of all people, Pom Pom was standing in the doorframe.

"Yo? Wai-"

She somewhat managed to suppress a surprised screech and ran back into her room.

"BOOM BOOOOOOOOOM! BOOM BOOM IT'S MAAAARIO!" she yelled at her older cousin.

"Really? Then can ya tell me _without_ busting my eardrums?" Boom Boom replied bitterly.

"BUT BOOMY…!"

Boom Boom got up and went over to the door.

"Hey Mario, um…" Boom Boom stared at Mario's hatless head.

"It got stolen," Mario replied.

"Oh," Boom Boom said, raising his eyebrows with surprise.

"Wait did Mario's hat get stolen?" Pom Pom shouted from inside the room.

"Yes," Boom Boom shouted back. He returned his attention to Mario and asked, "So who stole it?"

"Have you seen Fauxnuki?" Red K. Kid suddenly asked in his "Mr. Edgy Detective Man" voice.

Boom Boom gave Red a confused stare before asking, "…Who…is…that?"

"This is my friend, Red K. Kid," Blue K. Kid replied, irritation seeping into his voice. "And Fauxnuki is a Tanuki. He's pretty small, only about half the size of Mario's leg, brown fur, darker brown stripes, unnaturally black sclera and yellow pupils, have you seen him?"

"No," Boom Boom turned his head and yelled, "Hey Pom Pom, have ya seen some Tanuki with black eyes?"

"He's been beaten up?" Pom Pom asked.

"NO! Like, black where the white bit of eyes are!"

Pom Pom thought for a second before replying, "Nope! But we could help find him!"

Boom Boom shrugged and said, "Eh, why not. We had nothing better to do tonight anyway."

Pom Pom came over and asked, "So, where do we go first?"

The group of five whispered among themselves before Mario answered, "You two go check the odd-numbered floors, and we'll check the even-numbered floors. Knock on every door and ask anyone inside if they've seen the character Blue described. If you find anything out on your search, find us immediately. If not, then wait back here."

"Okay!" Pom Pom replied cheerily. "C'mon, Boomy, let's go find a Tanuki!"

Boom Boom and Pom Pom then left for the elevator to join the search for Fauxnuki. Once the elevator had returned, the gang went in the elevator and continued their search.

The rest of the search went unsuccessful – none of the other vacationers knew where Fauxnuki was, or even who he was. And Boom Boom and Pom Pom got so desperate they asked the so-called janitor! Once the two parties had regrouped and shared their failure, they parted ways.

While in the elevator, Green K. Kid asked, "Hey Mr. Mario, what's the time?"

Mario got out his phone and flicked on the lock screen. "It's 6:30."

"Oh. Well maybe we should stay here for the night!" Green K. Kid suggested.

"I second that!" Red K. Kid cheered.

"Okie dokie then," Mario replied, "Once we get down to the foyer, I'll book us a couple of rooms."

Once the group arrived in the foyer, they were approached by Boom Boom once again.

"Hey, uh, just got some news from Pom Pom. She said that she heard the janitor say something about a "mirror world" while we left? I dunno, I thought it sounded important so I thought I'd tell ya," he told the group.

"Thanks for telling us Boom Boom!" Luigi replied.

"Do ya plan on stayin' here for the night? 'Cause the costs are _pretty_ expensive," Boom Boom added.

Mario's face immediately became one of realisation, then morphed into concern.

"Don't worry, Me and Pom Pom'll pay it for ya! Kamek gave us _a lot_ of money when he sent us off to find King Bowser, so we totally could," Boom Boom explained.

"That'd be great, thank you," Mario replied, clearly relieved.

"Well, I'll do now, then!" Boom Boom said. "Hey Pom Pom! C'mere! We're payin' for Mario and Luigi's and those other rainbow guys' rooms!"

"Really?!" was Pom Pom's reply.

Mario took a seat and called Kamek.

"Hello? Mario? How are you doing?" Kamek asked.

"Good, thanks!" Mario replied.

"Any progress on finding Master Bowser?"

"Yeah, actually. We found a little guy named Fauxnuki who was with Popple and Nabbit that had traces of Bowser on him. He fought us, and after our battle he got away," Mario explained.

"He also stole Mr. Mario's hat," Red K. Kid shouted from halfway across the room.

"Did…he actually steal your hat, Mario?" Kamek asked.

"Yeah…"

"Oh my. Anything else?"

"Well, Boom Boom came to us earlier and said that when he and Pom Pom asked the janitor about Fauxnuki's whereabouts, he added something about a mirror world," Mario said.

Kamek was silent for a moment before saying in a very serious tone, "Come back to the castle as soon as possible. We need to talk."

* * *

 **The plot thickens.**

 _ **Wow Magifoofa, that was quick!**_ **  
Why yes it was~ I really want to get to the good stuff.**

 **Also yes, I do headcanon Boom Boom and Pom Pom as cousins.**

 **That's all I have to say for now, ciao!**


	12. Chapter 3-4: An Interlude

The sun shone in Fauxnuki's eye as he padded back to his lair. The walk from Kooperston to his hideout in Dimble Woods had been a long one, and he had made sure to leave the hotel early. He was just happy to arrive "home" for the first time in a while. But wait – didn't he have to go meet up with Popple and Rookie soon?

He didn't ponder on this for too much longer, as he had arrived at the entrance of his lair. It was covered up with dirt and the only thing that signified that something was there was anything there was a certain amount of claw marks on a nearby tree. He dug in the very specific spot and trotted down the hall.

"I'm hooooome~!" Fauxnuki called out, Mario's hat in mouth.

The grumbles of his prisoner was the only response.

"Ooh, are we going to be grumpy today?" Fauxnuki cooed, only angering the prisoner more.

Fauxnuki trotted over to the prisoner's cage, which was casually sitting to the side. It barely held the prisoner's large frame, in fact, he couldn't even stand up, only move his arms around, and his legs to an extent.

"Shut up, _racoon_ ," the prisoner growled.

Fauxnuki ignored this statement and asked, "So, how are you, Bowsy?"

"First of all, it's Bow _ser. King_ Bowser, preferably," the prisoner snapped, "And second, I'm _**terrible**_ , thanks."

"Oh," Fauxnuki replied. "Well that's a shame, isn't it?"

There was a pause as Fauxnuki realised something – he still had the hat in his mouth.

"Just wait a sec, I'll be back."

Bowser just scrunched up his face with irritated confusion and shrugged.

Fauxnuki trotted through a hole that he dug out and entered another room. It had been carved out so there was a long shelf that snaked around the room. On this shelf were several hats that he had collected over the years. This collection was his pride and joy…

He jumped up on the shelf and spat Mario's Cap between the party hat and the fedora. He smirked as he gazed at his newest addition to the collection, then left the room and went back over to Bowser.

As he approached the imprisoned king, he puffed out his chest and proudly stated, "I stole Mario's hat today."

Bowser raised his eyebrows with surprise. "Really? I thought it was a fake."

"Why would I steal a fake?" Fauxnuki replied. "Of course I stole Mario's hat. Would I lie to you?"

"Yeah, actua-"

"That was a rhetorical question," Fauxnuki said bluntly. "Anyway."

"Did you steal Luigi's hat as well?" Bowser asked.

"What, you mean Greenie's hat? Of course not!" Fauxnuki exclaimed.

Bowser gave him a disappointed look.

"What?"

"Anyway, I'm hungry, so I'm going to make tea now," Fauxnuki added, before walking off to another hole that led to the kitchen.

There wasn't much in the kitchen - some bowls for the food, cubbies that held all the food, some pots that made the room feel more like a kitchen, and of course, a carved-out bench. He pulled out four packet of instant noodles from a cubby, jumped up onto the bench and placed the packets down gently. He then got two bowls and brought them over to the noodles. As carefully as possible, he opened the packets of noodles and tipped the contents of a pair of packets into each bowl. Once he had done with that task, he (somehow) held the two bowls in his mouth, jumped down from the bench and walked over to the "door". He placed the bowls down and pushed them through until he was satisfied, then pushed them the remainder of the way through as he exited. Once he had gone through, he picked up the bowls again and carried them over to Bowser. He placed the bowls down and nudged one over to his captive, who only mumbled, "Dry noodles? **Again?** "

"Yes, again, and if you don't want it, _I'll_ have it," Fauxnuki growled, glaring at the koopa.

Bowser gulped, then reluctantly picked up the bowl and started nibbling away his noodles, while Fauxnuki broke his up and then gobbled it up. Neither of them said anything during their meal, making the minutes in which they ate very awkward.

Once they had both finished their noodles, Fauxnuki spoke up, "So, there's a reason I brought you here, Koopa."

Bowser muttered something under his breath, but Fauxnuki decided to ignore it, as not to ruin the mood.

"I need to heal myself, and the only way I can do that is by getting a certain leaf from a certain dimension. So I ask you this – do you know anything about the Mirror World?"

"The… The what-now?" Bowser asked.

"The Mirror World!" Fauxnuki snapped. " _Surely_ you've heard of it!"

Bowser's mouth went dry. It wasn't often that he was intimidated, but somehow he was scared of the tanuki.

"I'll say it again – do you know anything, and I mean _anything_ , about the Mirror World?"

At first Bowser couldn't speak. He just couldn't find the words to say. After a few moments he shook his head, and managed to croak, "N-No. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."

Fauxnuki sighed. "Well then. I thought that _maybe_ you'd have even a little bit of knowledge about the Mirror World, but it seems you're as thick as I was told."

He trotted over to another room and grabbed a couple of Super Leaves and put them in his storage.

' _I guess if I want it done right, I'll have to do it by myself.'_


	13. Chapter 4-1: The Mirror World

Mario and Luigi approached Bowser's Castle once more, this time with the K. Kid Trio behind them. Mario knocked on the door, and the doors opened slower than usual.

"That's weird. Weren't they faster last time?" Luigi asked his brother.

"I think so," Mario replied, a perplexed look on his face as he stared at the opening doors.

After a couple of minutes, the doors were finally open. One Koopatrol was panting while the other just stood, daydreaming.

"Geez, mate, ya coulda gave me a hand!" the Koopatrol shouted at their daydreaming friend. They actually managed to snap them out of their daydream.

"Oh, _now_ you stop daydreaming."

"Uh…! Um… M-Mario! State your…uh…your purpose!" the daydreamer asked loudly, still recovering from being snapped back to reality.

"We're here to see Mr. Kamek!" Red K. Kid said excitedly.

The Koopatrol glared at Red K. Kid, which prompted a sheepish chuckle from the latter.

"Well we got an answer anyhow, just let 'em in," the daydreamer whispered to their partner.

The Koopatrol sighed. "Fine."

The two Koopatrols moved so they faced each other. "In ya come. Don't dawdle either."

The five briskly made their way inside the castle. The two Koopatrols closed the doors at a much quicker pace than when they had opened.

The sight the Mario Bros. saw was very different from the last time they had come to the castle. Many Koopa Troopas scurried around, some carrying plates with assorted meats over their heads, while others carried glasses of water, blankets and giant pillows. And some were scampering around with pure fear for their king, while last time the place was clearer than a summer's morning. Above all of the troops was a female Magikoopa on her broom. She wore purple and pink robes and her hat had a wide rim.

"What are you lot _doing?!_ " she barked at a group of Koopa Troopas huddling in a corner. "Go make yourself useful!"

The group scattered and ran off. The Magikoopa muttered something inaudible from the noise of the troops, then spotted the five. She swooped over to them and chirped, "Hi guys! You're looking for Kamek aren't you?"

The group nodded sporadically.

"Don't you worry! I'll take you right over to him!" she answered happily before swooping back up into the air and above the crowd of Koopa Troopas.

"Come on!"

She zipped off, leaving the gang to follow her. It took a little while, especially with the looming threat of stepping on one of the troop's toes, but they had finally made it to the stairs, where the Magikoopa waited for them. Just as the five had arrived, she took off again. Blue K. Kid let out a sigh of annoyance before the group chased after her again. After jogging up the stairs and across a hall, they had finally caught up to her. She had led them to a door, the same one that Mario and Luigi had entered when they first met up with Kamek.

The Magikoopa knocked on the door, then invited herself in.

"If she was just going to go inside, then what was the point of knocking?" Blue K. Kid muttered before he followed his friends inside the room.

"Hey Kam-Kam! The Mario Bros. came over and they wanted to see you, soooo I brought 'em over!" the Magikoopa sang. "…You _did_ say that you wanted them over here if they came, right?"

"Yes, Kammy, I did say that," Kamek grumbled. "And-"

"-I told you not to call me Kam-Kam," Kammy mimicked, opening and closing one hand to imitate a mouth. "You _do_ realise I'm not going to stop, right?"

Kamek sighed, but did not reply to Kammy's question.

"So why'd you want the brothers here, anyway?" Kammy asked with a curious smirk, cocking her head.

"Just… Go away, Kammy," Kamek growled.

"Okay Mr. Grumpy Pants," Kammy teased before zooming out of the room.

Kamek sighed. "Sorry about that."

"Na, it's fine!" Green K. Kid replied.

Blue K. Kid grumbled, "Was it, th-"

Green K. Kid leaned over so his head was right next to Blue's, put a finger over the latter's mouth and hissed, "Shut. Your mouth." He moved away and gave a friendly smile.

Kamek shuffled over to a bookcase and said, "You may be wondering why I called you here." He grabbed a book from one of the higher shelves and set it down on the nearby table. The five huddled around him as he opened the book and flicked through the pages. He stopped on a title page that read 'The Mirror World', then turned over to the next page.

"You know about that place I told you about?" Mario asked.

Kamek nodded. "The Mirror World-"

"The MIRROR WORLD?!" Red K. Kid shouted abruptly. "Does that mean we get to fight DARK META KNIGHT?!"

"…Wrong Mirror World," Kamek replied, glaring at the red clone.

Red K. Kid stood awkwardly before saying, "…Oh."

Kamek's attention returned to the book in front of him. "As I was saying, the Mirror World is a very… _unique_ place. It's a world similar to ours, but it's drastically different at the same time." He flicked over a couple more pages and continued, "Any time you look in the mirror, your reflection gains a small part of your current emotion…."

The page was turned to show some weird lettering that was probably from another time and a couple of diagrams that none of the five understood.

"The only way to enter the Mirror World is to cast a spell on a mirror that opens a portal to the other side," Kamek continued.

As Kamek flicked over some more pages, Green K. Kid commented, "This Mirror World sounds cool! I wonder what kind of people we'll meet?"

Kamek stopped on a page illustrating a large tree on it. Its base was thick and the many branches were scraggly little things that twisted as they stretched outward. Every other branch only held one leaf.

"And in the Mirror World is the Asclepius Leaf, a leaf that can heal any illness and gives humongous power. A long time ago, it was cursed to never grow new leaves again." Kamek placed a finger on a paragraph and added, "The book says there's two leaves left, but this was written in the 1840's, so there's probably only one leaf now."

Blue K. Kid's nose twitched, and his eyes darted up to a high-up shelf that held some old and very important-looking books. He thought he saw something, but he decided that it just his mind playing tricks on him and ignored it.

"Whoever kidnapped Master Bowser probably wants the Asclepius Leaf for themselves so they can be 'all-powerful'. Don't why they'd go so far to get that info from _him_ , of all Koopas…" Kamek continued.

He turned toward the five and said, "I want you five to scout the nearby area for the whereabouts of the Asclepius Tree, or at least some more info about it. Once you do, come back as soon as possible."

"Will do!" Mario nodded.

Kamek turned back some pages and placed a finger on the paragraph with the diagrams and weird lettering. He place a finger on the paragraph as he quickly skimmed over it. He closed the book and picked up his wand. He walked over to the mirror and muttered some foreign words, then shot a magic blast at the mirror. The mirror absorbed the shot and the surface turned liquid-like in appearance.

Just as Kamek opened his mouth to say something, Fauxnuki jumped off the top shelf and flung himself into the mirror-turned-portal.

"Dang it!" Blue K. Kid shouted. "I should've known!"

"Well, you _do_ have something else to do in the Mirror World now, I guess," Kamek commented.

"Find Fauxnuki?" Green K. Kid asked.

"And stop him," Kamek replied. "This portal won't stay open for too much longer, so I suggest you'd go in now rather than later!"

Mario nodded with determination, and boldly stepped into the portal. Luigi scampered behind him, and the K. Kid Trio followed with excitement.

* * *

 **THE MOMENT YOU'RE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!**

 **(DUH, DUH LOH DOH DOH DOH DOH)**

 **CHAPTER 4-1!**

 **The wait is over! But not really because I still have to write 4-2!**

 **So what do ya think of the new cover** **and all 40 layers of pain** **? Pretty cool right?**

 **I wanted to get this out today, because as of release, it's been a year since I first published Koopa Crisis here on Fanfiction! YAYYY ANNIVERSARIES~!**

 **While I slaved away on the new cover, I also did some more planning! I have the rest of Chapter 4 planned out and I've started planning Chapter 5!**

 **So I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Ciao for now!**


	14. Chapter 4-2: Escape From the Castle

The first thing the gang saw as they stepped out of the portal was a shaken Magikoopa identical to Kamek leaning against a table. The Magikoopa glanced around, and as soon as he saw the five, he let out a screech. He slipped on the ruffled papers on the ground and fell onto his back.

"First small brown, then Mario! What happening…?"

Mario padded over to the Magikoopa and extended his hand. The Magikoopa gave Mario a confused stare. Mario gave the Magikoopa a warm smile. After some thinking, the Magikoopa cautiously grabbed Mario's hand and the red plumber helped him up.

"Sorry for scaring you," Mario apologised while the Magikoopa brushed its robe off. "We weren't expecting you to be here, that's all."

The Magikoopa looked up at Mario and asked, "Mario? Why you help? Why… How you talk?" He gestured at the mirror. "WHY YOU GO THROUGH MIRROR?"

"Um… I've always talked…?" Mario replied, confused.

Green K. Kid tapped Mario's arm, and whispered, "Um, team huddle?"

Mario nodded, then said to the Magikoopa, "Just a sec."

The five huddled together.

"I don't think he understands half of what we do about this Mirror World thing," Green K. Kid said. "I think we should explain what's up."

The rest of the group nodded, and they came out of the huddle and faced the Magikoopa again.

"You're confused as to why we're here, right?" Green K. Kid asked the Magikoopa, who nodded.

"Well, we can explain it for you!" Green K. Kid chirped. There was an awkward silence before Green K. Kid whispered, "Who's gonna explain it."

Red K. Kid pointed at Luigi with his thumb nonchalantly.

"Yeah, sure," Blue K. Kid agreed.

Luigi gave them a nervous glance, and Red K. Kid gave him a thumbs up.

Luigi stepped forward and started, "Well, you see, we're actually from another world across the mirror. We came here for a guy called Kamek."

The Magikoopa blinked with a confused frown.

"We're looking for a tree called the Asclepius Tree that's apparently in this world, or at least some information about it," Luigi continued.

"…Kamek?" the Magikoopa replied. "But… My name Kamek."

"Really?" Red K. Kid asked, shocked.

"Yes."

"Oh wow," Blue K. Kid stated.

"I kind of get different world thing…" the other Kamek added. "…What this world called?"

"This world's known as the Mirror World over in our world!" Green K. Kid replied.

"Oh. So that would make me… Mirror… Kamek…?"

"Probably…?" Red K. Kid answered, shrugging.

"Okay!" Mirror Kamek replied. "Sorry for bad English."

"It's okay!" Mario chirped. "Sorry for scaring you before."

"It okay! Small brown scare me, that all," Mirror Kamek said. "So this would be… Mirror Bowser Castle. Mirror Castle very tricky to go through. It change at random, and you get lost! And it your first time here maybe. Would like me to help you get through?"

Red K. Kid put his hands on his hips and puffed a small cloud of smoke out of his nose proudly. "Na, we don't need someone to help us through a **castle!** Right, Mario?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine," Mario answered. "We can handle it!"

"Are you _sure_ we'll be fine?" Luigi asked nervously.

"We could Game Over in here, Red. I dunno about you, but I don't want to die," Blue K. Kid stated.

"…True," Red K. Kid mumbled.

"Okay, Kamek, you can lead us to the exit!" Mario told the Magikoopa.

Mirror Kamek smiled briefly. "Alright, follow me."

* * *

Fauxnuki crouched behind a wall, watching the Koopa Troopas pace about. After a few moments, he dashed across the hall and up onto a Power-Up block. He scanned the ground below for any danger, then sat down.

' _What is up with all this lava?'_ Fauxnuki questioned in his head. _'It doesn't seem very ethical…'_

He looked around from his perch. There was also a lot of Koopa Troopas just walking around.

' _Do they not care about this lava problem?'_ He continued watching the Koopa Troopas for a little while, before answering his own question with, _'Clearly not.'_

' _This world's Bowser must be even dumber than the regular one,'_ he stated silently.

He watched the Koopa Troopas for a bit longer, before spotting an opening which he could run through to get to the big door across the hall. That is, if he was quick enough…

He stood up, leapt down from the block and darted across the hall. About halfway across, he heard a Koopa Troopa squawk. He skidded to a halt and whipped his head to look at the Koopa Troopa. The Koopa Troopa just stood there, staring at him.

Fauxnuki frowned. "Aren't you going to attack me? Call for help? I'm not supposed to be here, kiddo. I'm what you call a 'trespasser'."

He slowly padded away and over to the door. The Koopa Troopa continued walking.

"Huh," Fauxnuki muttered, looking at the Koopa Troopa over his shoulder.

' _I shouldn't worry about it,'_ he told himself, before opening the door and slipping through.

* * *

Mirror Kamek padded forward in front of the five.

"So, what other world like?" he asked the gang.

"Well, there's a lot of life!" Mario replied cheerily. "Lots of plants, lots of clean water – I think you'd love it!"

"Plants? Clean water? Even near Bowser Castle?" Mirror Kamek asked.

"Yeah! Not as much, but if you go far away enough from the castle there's Dimble Woods!" Mario told Mirror Kamek.

"Dimble… Woods," Mirror Kamek repeated to himself.

"A lot has happened over the last few years," Luigi added. "There was the time where Princess Peach's voice got stolen by a Beanish witch called Cackletta. She wanted to awaken the Beanstar and rule the world, but turns out the voice she stole wasn't **actually** Peach's, it was Birdo's."

"That was one heck of a ride," Mario commented.

"And there was also one time where we teamed up with our past selves to rewrite history and stop an alien invasion," Luigi continued. "…Or were we repeating history…?"

"I dunno, but you were doing _something_ with it," Blue K. Kid replied.

"Past selves?" Mirror Kamek questioned. "How old?"

"They were about... three, I'd say," Mario replied. "They can't have been much older than that. And it can't have been much time since one of the times our world's Kamek kidnapped us."

"Kidnapped?" Mirror Kamek exclaimed. "Why?"

Mario and Luigi shrugged.

"There was also the time where this other Beanish called Fawful, who just so happened to be Cackletta's lackey, gave the Toads a sickness called the Blorbs and took over Bowser's AND Peach's Castle. He also wanted to rule the world," Luigi explained.

"Did Fawful wake Beanstar?" Mirror Kamek asked curiously.

"No, he awoke the… Dark Star? It was the Dark Star, right?"

"Yeah, it was the Dark Star," Mario replied.

"Sound bad," Mirror Kamek stated.

"Yeah, it was," Mario replied. "Fawful also managed to get half of Toad Town _inside_ Bowser… I hope I never have to do that again." He shuddered.

"Yeah, but didn't you go inside Bowser when you fought Cackletta's Soul?" Red K. Kid asked.

"How do you know that?" Luigi asked with concern.

"Kamek gets us a bunch of games, remember," Red K. Kid replied flatly. "He was _bound_ to get one about your adventures."

"And he did! Lots of times!" Green K. Kid added.

"Huh?" Mirror Kamek asked, confusion written all over his face.

"Oh, _our_ Kamek," Red K. Kid told him.

"Oh."

"And there was also the time when we went over to Pi'illo Island and faced off against Antasma, a bat who ate nightmares," Luigi concluded, "It's been very exciting."

"Sound like it," Mirror Kamek replied. "Other world must be interesting… Unlike this world… I never hear of other world before today. Other me must be smart."

"He is!" Green K. Kid replied cheerily.

"You think this world's boring?" Red K. Kid questioned. "You wouldn't find a castle that changes randomly in _our_ world! I think that's pretty cool." He crossed his arms briefly.

Mirror Kamek replied, "You see, everything-"

He had no chance to finish his sentence. The group's surroundings went static, and slowly, they shifted to a new layout.

"Oh no," Mirror Kamek stated nervously, "No no no no noooo… I hoped it would not be now…"

He clicked his fingers, and his broom swooped over to him in a few moments. He hopped on it as the static faded and said, "Come on. Follow me."

He whizzed away, and the five ran after him.

* * *

Fauxnuki had halted as soon as the castle had gained its static appearance. His tail curled between his legs as he watched the surroundings change. He gave a panicked glance at the Koopa Troopas behind him. They didn't seem to notice it.

' _Geez, this Bowser's absolutely nuts!'_ he thought to himself.

As the static faded, he thought, _'What am I gonna do? Where do I go now?'_

Without thinking, he scampered in the direction he just went in.

* * *

"I think I find a way out!"

Mirror Kamek lead the five out of the narrow hallway and into a large room. It had two paths, one of which they were standing on, and the other directly across the room. Next to the paths were many wooden doors.

"I have not seen this before," Mirror Kamek thought under his breath.

There was a loud **THUMP** , followed by another. And another, and another. They were getting louder pretty quickly. Soon enough, the **thump** s ceased, and there was a heavy silence as the six anticipated what would happen next.

The brick wall was burst down with a **CRASH** and a fireball flew above their heads. Luigi instinctively ducked and covered his head, and Mirror Kamek had to swerve out of the way.

"Hey, it's Mr. Bowser!" Green K. Kid exclaimed, pointing at the Koopa king. "We found him!"

The K. Kid Trio burst into cheers, some which celebrated their 'victory', others which greeted him.

The Bowser squinted at the trio, and let out a growl.

"Uh… Mr. Bowser…?" Green K. Kid trembled softly.

"U-Uh, Your Majesty! Hello!" Mirror Kamek stammered as he flew up to eye level with the king.

The Bowser just frowned at him.

"Not having good day?" Mirror Kamek asked.

The Bowser let out a quick growl.

"A-Ah. Okay." Mirror Kamek returned to the five.

"Kamek…? Why didn't he say anything back…?" Green K. Kid whispered to the Magikoopa.

"I the only person I know who can talk," Mirror Kamek replied quietly.

"What?!" Green K. Kid exclaimed.

"I think it because other me so smart, he teach me English," Mirror Kamek explained. "Mm… Mirror Bowser no talk because other Bowser… Uh oh."

Mirror Bowser had spotted Mario and Luigi, and was now growling at them.

"It okay, sire! They want to-"

Mirror Bowser let out a deafening roar, and Mirror Kamek shrieked, "RUN!"

Mirror Kamek swooped down the path they were on, and the gang instantly sprinted after him.

"Maybe we can get away if we go through these doors…?" Blue K. Kid suggested over Mirror Bowser's footsteps.

"We can try!" Mario replied. He skidded at the nearest door and flung it open. He rushed inside, only to run out seconds later, screaming.

"There's tons of Piranha Plants in there! I don't think we can trust any of these doors!" he exclaimed.

The ground shook as Mirror Bowser ground-pounded on it repeatedly. The floor broke away, revealing a river of lava. There were some pillars remaining.

"I don't like the look of this!" Green K. Kid shouted. "Let's get going!"

Bowser let out another roar before jumping onto the nearest pillar and spitting out two fireballs.

* * *

A couple of rooms away, Fauxnuki was still running. He was just about to have a rest when he heard a roar. It didn't sound _too_ far away, so he dashed over to the source.

To his surprise, the door was already open, and he snuck in gratefully. There was a wide river of lava in the middle of the room, annoying him greatly.

"What is this guy's deal wi-" As he looked around the room, he saw Mirror bowser on a stone pillar, spurting fireballs at an unknown target. Fauxnuki had a pretty good idea of who the target, or target _s_ , were, though.

"This could be my ticket out of this messed up place!" he cheered quietly, before cantering down the path.

* * *

Mario and co. had been running for quite some time, and their legs were getting sore. Unfortunately, Mirror Bowser was gaining on them. He spat fireballs every now and then, which was enough to scare them.

They were now approaching a wall.

"We're going to dieeee!" Green K. Kid wailed.

"No we're not!" Blue K. Kid snapped. "We _will_ find a way out of here. Don't think like that."

"Look, there's a turn! See the shadow?" Mario exclaimed, pointing at the wall.

The rest of the gang squinted and cocked their heads, but eventually saw what he meant.

"We might be able to outrun him of we go that way!" Mario exclaimed, before skidding on his shoe and dashing down the new hall. The rest of the gang followed him.

Mirror Bowser saw them run down the hall. He jumped off the pillar he was on and onto the path the six were running down. He peered down the hall and looked for the Mario Bros., but saw nothing. He bent over and spat out a large fireball, before rising back up and looking at the hallway entrance with confusion.

Red K. Kid asked the group while he was running, "Hey, is it just me, or is it getting hotter in here?"

Mirror Kamek glanced over his shoulder to see a giant fireball speeding towards them.

"Duck!" he shrieked. He swiftly swooped down to the stone slab floor and laid on his broomstick. Mario and Luigi crouched and pulled their hats over their ears, and the K. Kid Trio hid in their shells.

The fireball roared as it zoomed over their heads, and for a brief moment they felt like they were on fire. After a few moments Mirror Kamek carefully rose back into the air and watched the fireball disappear.

"We safe now," he told the rest of the gang, and they slowly rose to their feet. After Green K. Kid asked if everyone was alright, they jogged down the hallway.

The peace wasn't long, as a smash and the sound of bricks tumbling to the ground sounded from afar.

"That must be him," Mirror Kamek cried.

And sure enough, it was. Mirror Bowser's roar echoed down the hallway. It was followed by heavy footsteps bounding down the hallway. Mirror Kamek didn't even need to say anything, the six of them started sprinting again.

They heard another fireball make its way down the hallway.

"There's a turn coming up; maybe we can dodge the fireball by going through there if we're quick enough!" Blue K. Kid stated.

"Yeah, but the hallway continues straight ahead as well!" Red K. Kid added. "What if that way's a dead end?"

"DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!" Blue K. Kid yelled.

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU IN TURTILKO **: NO I DO NOT!** " Red K. Kid shouted back.

Mario, Luigi and Mirror Kamek had gone around the corner, as Mario shouted, "Come on, you three, we're going over here!"

Green K. Kid had ducked into his shell just seconds before Mario spoke, much to the confusion of the others. They soon understood why. The second fireball was zooming down the hallway at an alarming rate, and Red and Blue K. Kid had only just managed to hide in their shells in time to be safe.

Once the fireball had passed, the three of them got up and ran over to the other three. They continued running for their fragile lives.

The process of running down the hallway, duck under the big bad fireball and turn at almost every corner repeated for about 15 minutes. The group of six had run into a large room with a bridge dangling over a pool of lava. There was a large button with an exclamation mark on it on the other side. Mario, Luigi and Mirror Kamek knew _exactly_ what to do.

"Is he here yet?" Mario asked, jogging on the spot.

"Huh?" Red K. Kid questioned. "First you _run away_ from him, and now you want him to _come here? Why?_ "

"We're gonna do a _classic_ ," Mario replied.

"A classi- OHHHHHHH," Green K. Kid realised.

Red K. Kid leaned over to Green and whispered, "What does he mean."

"Like in Super Mario Bros.," Green K. Kid replied.

"OHHHHHHH."

Mirror Bowser's footsteps approached. Mario quickly told them, "Right, so here's the plan. I'll distract him, while you," he pointed to Luigi, "go to the button. Kamek, you stay off to the side so you can save me from falling into the lava."

Mirror Kamek nodded meekly.

"Kids, you go with Luigi."

"Right," the K. Kid Trio said in unison, nodding.

The sound of Mirror Bowser's footsteps became louder, and the whole room shook as he approached. He burst down the doorway with a mighty **crash** and entered the room.

"Now!" Mario hissed.

Luigi and the K. Kid Trio tip-toed as carefully as possible over to the button and Mirror Kamek swooped off to the side.

"Hey, fartface!" Mario called out. "Over here!"

Mirror Bowser glared at the plumber and growled. He let out a tremendous roar before leaping up and landing with a loud **thud** , shaking the bridge. He spat out three fireballs and let the flicker out before jumping up again. Mario ran underneath the Koopa King and skidded to a halt.

"What are you _doing_ , Mario?" Luigi whisper-shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.

"I'm having some fun," Mario replied with a smirk.

Luigi just gave him a look of concern.

"Just don't be _too_ reckless, alright?" Green K. Kid told the red plumber. There was no response, but then again, he wasn't really expecting one.

After another minute of Mario darting about and getting on Mirror Bowser's nerves, a Lakitu flew into the room and hovered next to Mirror Kamek.

Mirror Kamek glanced at the Lakitu and asked, "How you get here?"

"Oh! I get around," the Lakitu replied. "I was going to interview King Bowser, but… I guess he's busy."

Mirror Kamek stared at the Lakitu for a few seconds before looking back at the battlefield.

"Hey, is it just me, or does that Lakitu have traces of Mr. Bowser on them?" Red K. Kid asked, pointing to the aforementioned Lakitu.

Blue K. Kid sniffed the air, and replied, "Maybe. It could just be this Bowser, though."

"Yeah, but I didn't get anything from _him._ " Red K. Kid turned his head to look at Green. "Did you, Green?"

Green K. Kid shook his head.

Red K. Kid said no more and continued watching the battle. Another minute or so passed.

"C'mon, Mr. Marioooo, just come over here and hit the button alreadyyyyyy," Red K. Kid moaned.

"The last time you whined about Mr. Mario taking so long, you put us in danger!" Blue K. Kid snapped.

Red K. Kid raised a flat hand and said, "Yeah, but there's no stones. Or electric Koopas with giant Yoshi eggshells for shells."

Blue K. Kid just frowned.

In one swift motion, the Lakitu swooped over to them, morphed, hit the button and skittered away.

The hinges keeping the bridge up loosened, and it started to fall into the lava. Mario started scrambling up what wasn't submerged, but was blocked by Mirror Bowser. Panicking, Mirror Kamek cast a spell that surrounded Mario in a blue light and lifted him in the air, safe from harm. Mirror Kamek raised his eyebrows with surprise, then gingerly placed Mario on the platform with his brother and friends. He then glided over to the lava pit, which already had the bridge and Mirror Bowser in its fiery clutches.

He frowned. "How I going to get sire out of there…?"

"Isn't it a _good_ thing that he's gone?" Green K. Kid asked.

"Not at all," Mirror Kamek replied, glancing over his shoulder. "If this Bowser no live, then bad thing happen. Many bad thing."

"Liiiike what?" Red K. Kid asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"I not know. Just know bad thing happen."

"Well it makes sense that bad things would happen to this world if their Mr. Bowser fell," Blue K. Kid told the rest of the gang. "The Darklands have gone absolutely _nuts_ and our Mr. Bowser hasn't even Game Over'd!"

"True," Green K. Kid replied, thoughtfully placing a finger on his chin.

Mirror Kamek then raised his wand and muttered to himself, "I hope this work…" He then flew across the pit, spreading magical dust that glowed all the colours of the rainbow.

After a few moments of silence, the whole castle started to shake. The shaking intensified for a few seconds before Mirror Bowser, now at least double the size, maybe more, burst out of the lava. Mirror Kamek was knocked away by the giant Koopa's arm. Mirror Bowser let out a giant roar, then shot a fireball right at the gang.

The K. Kid Trio screamed and ducked into their shells, while the Mario Bros. ducked. Red K. Kid popped out of his shell to check if the coast was clear just after Mirror Bowser shot out another fireball. Red K. Kid saw this just in the nick of time, and ducked back into his shell as fast as he could. The fireball blazed over him and caught the tip of his right horn as he hid in his shell.

Green K. Kid stuck his head out of his shell and glanced around. "It's all clear, guys!"

The rest of the gang got up only to be greeted with Mirror Bowser swiping at the floor.

"He's after us!" Red K. Kid shrieked. "Run!"

And so they did. Until they met a wall a few steps later.

"Luigi, I need to use your head," Mario told his younger brother, who knelt down for him. Mario climbed onto his back and jumped off Luigi's head. Luigi signalled for the K. Kid Trio to follow Mario's lead, and they climbed onto Luigi's back and attempted to pull off Mario's famous jump. Mario caught each one of them as they jumped and pulled them up. Luigi then jumped up himself and managed to latch on to the ledge of the platform. Mario then pulled him up.

"DUCK!" Green K. Kid screamed seconds after Luigi had gotten up, then ducked into his shell. Another two fireballs were headed their way. The rest of the gang ducked, and once they had passed, they continued onwards.

They crossed two moving platforms, and just managed to jump to the next part of the course before Mirror Bowser leapt up and crashed down. He then repeated his two fireballs and two swipes. The gang skittered down the course and jumped down onto a platform, which started moving downward just as the last member of the five leapt on. Mirror Bowser let out another deafening roar before leaping down to the same level as the five, sending a wave of lava with it.

"Mario! Um... Green Mario!"

The voice belonged to none other than Mirror Kamek, who swooped over to the five.

"You're okay!" Green K. Kid rejoiced.

"Yes. I have idea on how to stop Bowser!" Mirror Kamek told the group.

"How?" Mario asked.

"I hit him with magic. You keep going. There should be button at the end of this hall."

"Right!" Mario replied, giving the Magikoopa a thumbs-up.

"I don't mean to burst your bubble, but we need to move, this thing's going down," Blue K. Kid interrupted.

The rest of the group glanced down at the lava, which was scarily close. Red K. Kid let out a yelp, then they all jumped up to the next moving platform. Mirror Bowser had fired more fireballs at them, which made things harder for the five.

"All these platforms are moving so fast, I don't think I can keep up!" Green K. Kid exclaimed as he jumped onto the next platform, which moved vertically.

"We need to keep moving, Green! No time for complaining!" Blue K. Kid replied as he prepared to jump to another platform.

The five jumped from one platform to the next for another two minutes while Mirror Kamek held back the raging Bowser with magic blasts. Eventually, the group reached a large orange-yellow button with a black exclamation mark on it. The base of the button was circled with spikes, much like the ones on thee Koopa king's cuffs.

"There it is!" Luigi exclaimed. The five clambered onto the stone platform and Mario jumped onto the button. Mirror Bowser, who was advancing on them rather quickly, paused when he felt some shaking underfoot. He looked around to try and find the source, when suddenly the floor gave out on him. He fell down to who-knows-where as the lava drained away. When the five were sure he was gone, they let out a victory cheer.

"Do not worry, he come back soon. He always do," Mirror Kamek told them. "But for now, let get you out of here."

After a bit of confusion as to where to go, the group made it outside to be greeted with a red sky and humid air.

"Air sweet air!" Red K. Kid exclaimed. "I thought we'd never get outta there!"

"You can say _that_ again," Mario replied.

"Air swe-"

Blue K. Kid jabbed Red in the torso, prompting a yelp from the former.

"It's not literal," Blue K. Kid hissed.

"Oh."

"Is it just me, Mario," Luigi asked, "or the soles of my shoes burning?"

Mario's eyes widened.

"OHMYGRAMBIIT'SSOHOTOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!"

The brothers began running on the spot and Mario asked, "Kamek! Where's a cooler spot! My feet are _**burning!**_ "

"You can just go on drawbridge," Mirror Kamek replied nonchalantly, pointing at the drawbridge mentioned.

The two sprinted over to the drawbridge and sat down. Mario let out a sigh of relief.

"I think we should just sit here for a bit. What do you think, Mario?" Luigi asked.

Mario just nodded.

"But how come _you three_ aren't dying over there?" Mario asked with a hint of jealousy, gesturing at the K. Kid Trio.

"Oh, us?" Green K. Kid said. "We're Koopas, remember? We're used to this kind of heat!"

"And so are our feet!" Red K. Kid added.

Mario pouted, which prompted a soft pat on the back from Luigi.

A small **pitter-pat** of paws sounded as Fauxnuki burst out of the castle and halted next to Blue K. Kid.

"I almost _**died**_ out there, you lot!" he exclaimed. "You tall folk are lucky! I almost got hit by a lava wave!"

"You were with us the entire time?" Green K. Kid asked, raising an eyebrow.

"YES!" Fauxnuki shrieked. "I'm surprised you didn't notice me!"

"So _that's_ why I could sense I little bit of Mr. Bowser," Red K. Kid realised aloud.

 _'At least_ _ **one**_ _of them aren't completely thick,'_ Fauxnuki thought before he realised that his pawpads were searing hot. He yelped and dashed over to the drawbridge, falling onto his belly once he arrived next to Luigi.

The brothers looked over at Fauxnuki. The tanuki raised an eyebrow and growled, " _What._ "

"Why are you here in the Mirror World?" Luigi asked. "Are you looking for...?"

"The Asclepius Leaf?" Fauxnuki finished. He got himself onto his feet, puffed out his chest and replied, "Why of course! I've been searching for it since-"

He frowned as he realised what he was saying.

"And what about Popple and Nabbit? Shouldn't you be with them?" Mario added.

Fauxnuki scoffed. " _Them?_ Hah! I don't need those two to help me! I can find the Asclepius Leaf on my own!" He frowned and glared at the ground, muttering, "If anything, those two _dolts_ would get in the way..."

His face lifted a bit as he sat down, curling his tail around his legs. The bros. And Fauxnuki sat in silence, and the K. Kid Trio entertained themselves with Paper Scissors Rock.

After a few minutes, Fauxnuki stood up and announced, "Right. I'm off, see you never, hopefully."

"Wow, thanks," Red K. Kid yelled from the entrance.

Fauxnuki cantered off, yelling, "Toodles!"

Once the group was certain he was gone, Mirror Kamek asked, "So what were you doing here again?"

"We're looking for the Asclepius Tree, or at least some more info on it," Luigi replied.

"...Right. I know nothing about tree, maybe you should start in Shellington?" Mirror Kamek suggested.

"Will do!" Mario replied. He got up on his feet and shouted, "Let's-a go, team!"

The K. Kid Trio ran over to him. Luigi got up on his feet as they started to leave.

"Y'know, this is kinda familiar..." Green K. Kid thought aloud.

Blue K. Kid replied, "It's called deja vu, Green."


End file.
